Forces of Darkness
by DarkieDucessa
Summary: In the year 648... Daein has just won its freedom from Begnion, and Queen Elincia has recently quelled an uprising against her. All is at peace. But then a strange ship from a distant continent arrives in Crimea, pursued by a fleeting shadow of great power, who has chased a prince across land and sea for a simple mark on his hand... Includes yaoi. Don't like, don't read.
1. Prologue

**Author's Note:** **  
**_Something very important to know about this fanfiction: It is a what-if story that takes place during the same time that Radiant Dawn would normally take place, so it uses some of the same events, but a lot of things are different._ _Major note: This was originally written as a sequel to a what-if Ike x Zelgius fanfiction I wrote a while ago, which took place during Path of Radiance. So, in following that storyline... Zelgius resigned from the Begnion military and married Ike. They have a ten to twelve year old adopted daughter named Elena, who is Hawk Branded. Don't like, don't read. Okay, I'm done._

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_**DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING**_

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**~Prologue  
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_August 1, 648.  
_ Late afternoon. It rained. Huge buckets of rain had fallen from the sky in the early morning, and it was pouring even harder by the time Ike Greil returned to the Greil Mercenaries' Fort. The sky had truly opened up, and showed no signs of stopping. He slammed the door behind him and leaned against it for a moment, wiping the sweat and rain from his eyes. Then he paused and listened. He couldn't hear anybody. "Zelgius?" he called.  
A second later a young blue-haired girl shot out from beneath the table and crashed into him. "Dad!" Elena cried happily, nuzzling her face in his chest.  
He laughed and patted his daughter's dark hair. "Hi, El." he said with a weary smile. "Where's your father?"  
"Mia challenged him to another duel. They should be done soon." she replied, jumping back again, practically bouncing on her feet. "How was Melior?"  
"Fine." He shrugged. "Elincia sends her regards."  
"Ike!" The mercenary turned to see his red-headed deputy commander come downstairs. "Good to see you!"  
"Titania," Ike said, attempting to look cheerful as he walked over to her, Elena tagging at his heels. "Good to see you too."  
"How was the Queen?"  
"I think she's feeling better. The Ludveck Rebellion was unsettling, but she's doing fine now. When I left the Royal Knights were just setting off to seek out the last of Ludveck's supporters. She decided to go with them."  
"Good for her. She looked really pale when we saw her... she should get out more."  
"Hey, Ike!" Mist called, popping out from behind Titania. "It's great that you're back!"  
"I was only gone for a week," he complained. "Why is everyone acting like I've been gone for ages?"  
"Commander!" a high feminine voice shouted as a door slammed. Ike sighed and turned around. Mia stood posing dramatically in the doorway, wet and bedraggled, her hair flying in the wind. "Prepare yourself!" she shouted, charging Ike. The Hero sidestepped and caught her as she stumbled. She laughed as he swung her back to her feet. "Better work on your form, Commander! Zelgius was much faster!"  
"Speaking of him—" He was interrupted when someone hugged him warmly from behind.  
"Hello, love." Zelgius said softly around Ike's shoulder.  
"Zelgius." Ike replied, his face brightening in an instant. "Do you have a minute?"  
His husband nodded. "Of course. If you'll excuse us, ladies...?" Titania laughed and nodded, wandering off. Mist took Elena's hand and led her upstairs to bed, and after a few seconds Mia stumbled off towards Rhys' room, presumably for healing. Ike pulled his husband outside and checked to see that no one was watching. "Ike? Is everything all right?" Zelgius asked, concerned.  
The Hero pulled his right glove off, exposing the mark that had appeared on the back about four days ago; three black triangles, stacked on top of each other to form one larger triangle, the bottom right one pulsating with a faint gold light. "What is this, Zelgius?" he asked, the rain plastering his hair across his face, hiding his tired, almost frightened eyes. "What is happening to me?"

_August 1__st_, 648.

Late evening. It still rained. Queen Elincia Ridell Crimea was standing in it. It was pouring in Port Toha, and though it was almost ten at night and most of her troops were either sleeping or on guard, she sat on a barrel looking out at the sea, dressed only in a nightgown, just enjoying the air. "Goddess, how I missed the sea." she whispered to herself.  
She heard a few light footsteps behind her, but she didn't turn. "Elincia?" a young man's voice asked.  
"Geoffrey." she stated. A few more footsteps and she turned.  
Geoffrey was wearing his ordinary clothes, minus the armor and weapons he usually carried. It made him look... different, to say the least. He was carrying a blanket, which he wrapped around her gently. "It's late. You should rest." he said softly.  
"I'm sorry if I woke you," she murmured, turning back to the gray waters. "I... I missed the sea. I didn't realize it until we got here."  
He stood over her, his hands lingering on her shoulders for longer than was necessary. "You were at sea with Commander Ike?" he asked.  
"Yes... perhaps that is why I think of it often." she replied. "But... it doesn't make me feel sad. Just... happy. Which is odd. I... used to think I loved Commander Ike... and he's married to someone else now. So you would think the sea would make me sad... sad for the one I had lost."  
Geoffrey was silent for a few moments. "I don't think that's odd at all." he finally said.  
"Why?"  
"Because you never did love him, not like that. You only thought you did. You already know _that._" he stated firmly. "The sea only reminds you of one of the few happy times you had during the Mad King's War—or at least, during the beginning of it."  
Neither of them said anything for a while. "I... I think you're right." she murmured at last. "Thank you, Geoffrey. I feel better."  
He abruptly picked her up bridal-style, causing her to yelp slightly. "Well," he said cheerfully, "it really is late now, and there'll be more time for musings tomorrow."  
She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him lightly, then laughed playfully when he blushed. "If you insist, my dashing Knight Commander." she said coyly.

Half a mile offshore, two lonesome Crimean pegasus knights were out on patrol. "Why do we always get the lamest jobs?" Sharon complained loudly, twisting a loose strand of her sea-green hair around her finger. "Patrolling in _blizzards_, patrolling in the _rain..._"  
"Oh, stop complaining." Marcia said in frustration. "You should be thankful that we even _have_ jobs, after what that bastard Ludveck tried to pull off. He probably would have disbanded the pegasus knights... we all know how he hated them."  
"But still!" Sharon insisted. "I understand Ludveck and all, but who—or _what—_does the Queen think is going to be out here this late at night?"  
Marcia shrugged. "How should I know?"  
"You're her _friend!_ You're dating the _second-in-command!_"  
The pink-haired knight blushed. "I am _not_ dating Kieran, we're—we're just friends!"  
Sharon rolled her eyes. "Oh come _on_, Marcia. D'you think I'm daft? We all know about you and Commander Kieran, and that green-haired knight too, y'know."  
Marcia's blush deepened. "Look, Sharon, Kieran is not my boyfriend, and neither is Oscar. We're just... friends. Acquaintances!"  
A laugh. "Marcia, you shouldn't bother trying to hide it. _Everybody_ knows that you're the only one that can make Oscar consider Kieran his rival in _anything!_ What's the story with you three?!"  
"Oh, alright!" The pink-haired knight laughed, then sighed. "I met Oscar when I joined up with the Greil Mercenaries, when they were escorting the Princess to Begnion. We... spoke a bit. Not much time for dating, but we hung out. Then we broke Kieran out of jail, and he saw me and Oscar flirting one day. I... suppose he thought Oscar wasn't _worth_y—that's what he told me, anyway, Oscar I mean—but he sought me out later that day to spar, and sometime after that, in Begnion, he insisted on taking me on a date. I brought Oscar along... not one of my brightest ideas... and, well, I've kinda been dating them both ever since."  
Sharon laughed so hard her pegasus nearly shied. Marcia glared. "It's not that funny! Well... okay, _maybe _it is."  
"You... Oscar... Kieran... ha-ha!" Sharon paused to catch her breath. "S-sorry! But, ha-hmm... why don't you just pick one and go with it?"  
Marcia shrugged and reined her pegasus, Jewel, to a halt. "I don't know... they're both good people... noble, smart, handsome... kind... I really just can't decide. I don't feel any difference between my feelings for the both of them."  
"You should decide soon. _I_ might want to date one of those guys."  
Marcia laughed. "Well, maybe if Oscar came back to the Knights it would be easier..." She slowed her green-maned pegasus, Jewel, to a halt. "Let's take a break, alright?"  
Sharon nodded, still giggling slightly under her breath, and gently stopped her silver-maned pegasus. "Good girl, Bree." she crooned. The pegasus whinnied, and the knight leaned down to check on its left front leg.  
The pink-haired pegasus knight smiled. Sharon wasn't too fond of dealing with harsh conditions, but if anything could be said for her, she loved her pegasus. "How's her leg?" Marcia asked.  
"We've gone through worse," Sharon replied. "That was quite a tumble last week. But as long as I make sure not to land her too hard, she should be fine."  
"Well," Marcia sighed. "Another mark to go, and then—" She suddenly frowned.  
"Marcia?" Sharon asked.  
"What's that?" the girl asked, pointing to her right, out to sea.  
Sharon looked. There was a dark blob out in the murky waters, almost invisible in the pouring rain. "I don't know," she said worriedly. "A ship?"  
Marcia laughed. "Well, you were wrong when you said that nothing was going to be out here. Come on. Let's check it out!" She nudged Jewel's sides and the pegasus flew forward. Sharon patted Bree again, then followed close behind.  
It indeed was a ship—a light sloop, Marcia guessed. She could faintly make out the words _"Sea Cat"_ on the bow, though any kind of figurehead was long gone. All its lights were out and she could see no crew on deck. "That's odd. You'd think there would at least be a watchman." Marcia commented. "Anything to add?" (Sharon's father was a sailor, so she knew quite a lot about ships.)  
"Look at the sails," Sharon said, pointing at the mainmast. "They're torn and damaged. That yardarm has been burned, but the other one isn't touched—that's not natural. The rigging is shot through in several places, and the top part of the main mast is gone—but not the rest. A catapult can't do that. The remaining sails haven't been stowed properly. And the hull—it's been damaged _beneath_ the water line. How did that happen? A ballista could hit it, maybe, but I doubt a catapult could get the right angle, and ballistas don't have enough strength to punch through water _and_ wood like this."  
Marcia lowered Jewel down, then spotted a fitting open space near the aft of the ship. "Let's check it out," she said, bringing her pegasus in low.  
The landing was easy enough, but it made more noise than Marcia would have liked. She warily drew her lance and motioned Sharon down. The other girl landed easily, though Bree almost stumbled on her injured leg. Sharon slid off and pulled out a lance. "Someone was bound to have heard that." she whispered.  
Marcia nodded. "Leave the pegasi here for now. I'm going to check the hold; you go check the cabin." Sharon nodded quickly and darted off, her feet falling lightly on the boards of the deck. Marcia looked about and spotted the stairs down. Pulling out a torch, she headed for it.  
It was dark below decks, and when she lit her torch she was only confronted with darkness, rotting wood, and the smell of blood. Trying not to inhale through her nose, she went down to the next deck. At the bottom of those stairs, she hit water. It was about two feet deep and chilled her to the bone. She shivered and looked about. "Hello? Is anybody here?" she called. There was a loud splash and somebody cursed. "Hello?" she called again. More splashing. Then somebody came into her field of vision, shielding his eyes with his hand. _Wow,_ was the first thought that came to her mind. Then; _Wow,_ again.  
He was about six feet tall and would have been very handsome, if he was cleaned up a bit. Presently, however, he was a mess. His blue hair was ragged and long, his clothes—probably once royal finery of some sort—were torn and soaked through with blood and seawater, and his face was pale and weary. His sapphire eyes were tired and unfocused, and his hands were bandaged with bloody rags. "Who are you?" he asked softly.  
"I was going to ask you the same thing." she replied sternly.  
He squinted, and his eyes finally focused. "Did the Shadow send you?" he demanded.  
She frowned. "Who? No! I don't know who you're talking about."  
He sighed and practically fell sideways, leaning against the wall. "Thank the Goddess," he breathed. "I can't handle this as it is. I don't need more—more _problems_." Then he looked at her suspiciously. "Who _are_ you, then? What continent is this?"  
"Marcia, of the Royal Knights of Crimea. Tellius." she replied automatically. "You?" He straightened.  
"Tellius? I-I've never heard of Tellius... Akaneia was the only..." His eyes narrowed suddenly. "You _are_ from the Shadow, aren't you?! I swear, I don't know what you want—"  
"_No_!" she insisted. "_I_ swear, I don't know _who_ you're talking about! Tellius is real!"  
He moaned and staggered. She rushed forward and caught him at the last second. "Tell me your name." she said. "I'm going to help."  
His head slumped forward and she noticed the gold circlet that he wore—she hadn't seen it before. "Marth." he murmured. "Marth Lowell III. Prince of Altea."  
"Altea...? What's tha—" He looked at her pointedly, and she stopped. "Oh."  
After a moment of awkward silence, she said "Come on. Let's get you back on deck." He nodded and staggered to his feet, then nearly fell again. She supported him up the stairs. "Are you all by yourself?" she asked.  
He shook his head. "No. There were about fifty of us, when we got on the ship. The Altean Royal Knights, or what was left of them. Then the Shadow attacked us with fire and steel." He paused to catch his breath, and Marcia noticed a bloody wound in his left leg. "He gave me that," Marth remarked when he saw her looking. "He probably would have killed me, but my mother..." He fell silent.  
His right hand accidentally banged against a post, and the bandage slipped. As he moved to fix it, she noticed that it bore a peculiar mark on the back. Three triangles, stacked atop one another to form a bigger triangle. The bottom left one pulsed faintly with blue light. _What an odd mark,_she thought.

When they got to the deck, Sharon was waiting. "Marcia! I—" She frowned. "Who—?"  
The pink-haired knight set Marth down. "Marth Lowell III, of Altea... What did you find?"  
"More survivors." Sharon said quickly.  
"Where are they?" Marcia demanded.  
"Well, er... they're in the cabin, but... they blockaded the door, and they won't reply when I talk to them." Sharon admitted.  
Marth sighed and pushed himself to his feet, staggering over to the door. "Roy!" he called. "It's me! It's all right!"  
There was a moment's pause. Then a loud bang and some groaning, and then the door opened and a red-haired teen pulled the door open and grabbed Marth just before he fell over again. "Marth!" he cried. "It's not the Shadow?"  
The Altean prince shook his head and gestured to Marcia and Sharon. "They're friends."  
A slender blue-haired girl poked her head out of the door behind the boys and looked at the two pegasus knights. There were about ten dark shapes behind her. "And you are?" the girl demanded.  
"Marcia and Sharon, of the Crimean Royal Knights." Marcia replied. "The continent back there is Tellius."  
"Elice Caeda Lowell of Altea." the girl replied. "Hmm... Tellius? I haven't heard the name before. We thought all other land had been lost in the Great Flood."  
"We thought the same, until you showed up." Marcia countered.  
"Point taken."  
"My lady?" someone called from inside the room. "Are you sure it's safe?"  
Elice stepped around the boys and said "Yes, Princess, it's safe. Come on."  
Marth got to his feet and stepped aside. The teen got up with him. "Goddess, Marth, you should have let me go instead. Why did we need to repair that damn hole anyway? I mean—you freaked me out! _I_ got scared! When those girls showed up, we panicked, I locked the door, that girl started banging hell—"  
"Roy." Elice said gently. "Please. Language."  
Roy rolled his eyes. "To hell with language!"  
Sharon laughed. Roy shot her a suave glance and smiled slyly, causing her to blush.  
A viridian-haired woman, apparently in her late twenties(though her ears were pointed), stepped out and smiled faintly. "Well met. My name is Tiki. Are... are you here to help us?"  
"Yes." Marcia said confidently. "You're safe now, I promise."

_August 1__st__, 648._

_Midday. In northern Altea, it is snowing. Snowing in high summer—another sign of the vast changes sweeping across the desolate landscape. Huge wet flakes swirl in the winds, covering the ground in white. But the snow does nothing to stem the raging fire that consumes Castle Altea—have consumed it for months, and have yet to stop burning.  
__I will not look back at the carnage I have inflicted. I will not look back at the destroyed castle, at the blood of kings that stains my sword, at my limitless army that marches across the snowy plains. At my mistake.  
__I look at my left hand. My black, cold hand. Marked with three triangles, stacked to form a great one. The triangles are gray against the dark of my skin._ _I press the top one, and it begins to glow with an eerie golden light. I subconsciously see a young man... a prince with a golden light... on a continent far away that had been thought to be lost. I smile.  
__I know I made mistakes with this continent. I attacked too early. I let my emotions get control of me. I should have waited...  
__And I was sentimental and foolish. I allowed the Altean Prince to escape.  
__But I will not make the same mistakes twice.  
__"Come, Shard." I say, in that dark and twisted hiss of the Hero's voice that I have come to know so very well. My mark burns as I speak, but I pay no heed as I draw my blade of Tears. My mighty dragon with scales of red and black comes to stand beside me. "We fly for Tellius."_

**~End of Prologue**


	2. I

**~Chapter One**

Crimean nobles, as a rule, were not pleased easily. Especially not with a young queen like Elincia on the throne. They criticized almost her every decision, each one seeking personal gains and none of them with any morals whatsoever. Most of them, Elincia suspected, had been rooting for Ludveck during the rebellion.  
Yet for once they had not greatly contested her decision—that the Altean refugees should be allowed to stay in Crimea for as long as they wished. In fact, the nobles almost encouraged her to proclaim it, though they remained suspicious and apprehensive. Apparently, however, the thought of Crimea harboring the last descendants of Marth Lowell I of Altea, the great "King of Kings" the refugees had spoken of, agreed with them.  
The last descendants. Elincia didn't like to think of them that way, but that's really what they were. Marth Lowell III. Elice Caeda Lowell. And Roy Lowell. Twenty, nineteen, and fifteen. They were too young to be orphans, in her opinion, but she had become an orphan herself at much the same age.  
The Altean refugees had been living in Melior for two weeks now. There were ten of them, other than the three nobles. Thirteen out of an entire continent. Elincia couldn't even begin to imagine what they'd been through.

_August 15__th__, 648._

"Your Majesty." Marth greeted politely when Elincia entered the lovely castle garden, where the Alteans spent most of their time.  
"You're a noble too, your Highness." she chided. "Just Elincia, please."  
He shook his head. "I am the prince of a dead land. Just Marth."  
She sighed. "Do you always have to be so formal? I just got out of a meeting with Crimea's nobles. I've had enough of formalities for one day."  
He laughed. "Ah. Very well then, Elincia. What brings you here?"  
"Just trying to get some air, like I said."  
They began walking down the garden path. Elincia was looking at Marth. His hair had been cut to just above shoulder length, and he was wearing a spare tunic and pants of Geoffrey's(they fit rather well). Despite his claim that he was not a noble, he still wore his gold circlet. His eyes shone bright, so much unlike when she had first seen him a month ago, the very night Marcia carried him back to Port Toha. He really was handsome.  
"I must thank you again for allowing us to stay." Marth said. "If I had been exiled into Akaneia ten years ago, I doubt those nations would have been quite as accommodating."  
"It's my pleasure." she replied. "Besides, I would never turn away refugees. It's against my nature."  
They wandered into a few of the refugees. "Marth. Queen Elincia. So nice for you to join us." Elice Caeda said, calmly polishing her sword. She was wearing one of Lucia's spare dresses, as hardly anything that had come with the refugees could be salvaged.  
"Just Elincia." the young queen said, sitting down beside the elegant princess. "Are you all faring well? Is there anything you need?"  
"Oh no, Your Majesty." the boy Mark said emphatically. "We have everything we need."  
"You've done so much for us," his twin sister, Lucina, added.  
"Please!" Elincia said. "It's all right. I was happy to, really."  
"Still, it was a gracious gesture." the beautiful viridian-haired woman said smoothly. "I hope we can repay you someday for your kindness."  
Elincia nodded. The woman, Tiki, was actually a Manakete—an Altean dragon—and over a thousand years old, which unnerved the young queen more than a little. Tiki was also the mother of the long-lived twins Mark and Lucina. Their father was the so-called "Hero of Shadows," who had fought beside the original Marth Lowell. They were over three hundred years old.  
"Well," Marth said cheerfully, "I promised Roy I would spar with him soon, so—ah, there he is."  
The young red-haired prince dashed around a corner and skidded to a stop. "Marth!" he panted, tossing a practice sword at his brother. "There you are! Ready for a duel?"  
Marth laughed and caught the sword. "All right, but I won't be going easy on you." Roy leapt forward, and a moment later they were engaged in combat.  
"What is it with Roy and duels?" Elincia asked, watching the brothers spar. "He's a lot like... like someone I know."  
Elice Caeda shrugged. "He's just determined to win one of these days, I suppose."  
A practice sword went flying and hit Kester(a Knight of Altea and descendant of the legendary Sir Cain) in the back. He yelped and spun on the boys, shouting threats(hopefully playful), and a few moments later he was in the combat as well.  
"Do you think he ever will?"  
"Most likely, if he trains hard. Still, I think he spends too much time reading to be a serious swordfighter."  
Kester stumbled out of the melee and ran into his friend Dustin(the Altean Knight descendant of Sir Abel), and the two immediately began to talk.  
"Does Roy read that much?"  
"I think he really wants to become a mage. Father wanted all of us to be myrmidons at one point, but Roy's shown an affinity to magic since he was little."  
Roy flew out of the melee and nearly tripped up Elwyn and Luna(the identical twin red-haired sisters, descended from Lady Lena and Sir Julian—Elwyn was a Wind Mage and Luna was a Priest). They immediately began scolding him, and he waited impatiently for them to finish. Marth just got up and leaned against a tree—and, since Elwyn and Luna's lectures could be lengthy, began to chat with Jak, the dark-haired 'assassin-in-training'(who was ironically the descendant of the honorable Sir Ogma).  
"Did I mention that he accidentally put a spell on the cat once?" Elice Caeda asked.  
"No! What did he do?"  
"He wanted to test out his powers, so he tried to make a potion that would increase height—he's always been the shortest of us, something he doesn't like much. But then he accidentally spilled it and the cat drank it before he could try it." She laughed. "Its fur turned pink! It took Roy weeks to figure out how to undo the potion's effects."  
Roy finally broke away from the sisters and charged Marth, and the duel began again.  
"Can Roy cast other spells?"  
"Only minor ones—cantrips, he calls them. Not good enough to make a difference on the battlefield, but if he put some serious effort into it he would make a great myrmidon-mage cross—if that's even possible."  
Roy accidentally tripped his brother and they ended up both on the ground, laughing. William(the brunette myrmidon descendant of Merric and the original Elice, a bit snooty due to his distant relation to the Hero King) turned up his nose disdainfully and walked away. He nearly tripped over Deirdre(the sapphire-haired morose archer descendant of Sir Gordin) and they started arguing.  
Elincia looked around at the Altean refugees. Mark, Lucina, Kester, Dustin, Elwyn, Luna, Jak, William, Deirdre. "That's funny." she said. "Most of the refugees are descendants of the original heroes that fought with the Hero King."  
"What's so funny about it?" Elice Caeda asked. "They know their ancestors, and they train hard so that they won't be looked down on as disgraces to their noble families' names. Therefore, they are some of the best warriors that Altea had, and worthy members of the Altean Royal Knights. They were also some of the youngest knights, many of them having older siblings that went to fight the Shadow. These children were the fallback."  
Elincia shrugged. "I suppose that makes sense." She smiled wryly. "Huh. So in a few hundred years, it'll probably be much the same with Ike's descendants..."  
"Who's?"  
The young queen frowned. _Have I really not told her about Ike?_ "Ike is the general who led the army to free Crimea from Daein occupation, about three years ago." she explained. "He was a mercenary, but I made him a lord for a while—I'll tell you the whole story later."  
"If he's that famous, then where is he?" Tiki asked innocently. "I have not heard mention of a Lord Ike around here."  
"He gave up his title and returned to lead his father's mercenary group." Elincia replied.  
Mark suddenly thought of something. "Wait. I think I heard one of the guards mention an Ike the other day, right Lucina?"  
She nodded. "Yes, Mark."  
Elincia raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And what did they say?"  
Mark frowned. "I don't remember..."  
"They said something about 'Lord Ike' and how it was strange..." Lucina began.  
"...that he could be so great when he was 'messed up'." Mark finished. "I remember now."  
Elincia closed her eyes and sighed. "...messed up... no, he's not that..."  
"What did they mean?" Elice Caeda asked.  
Elincia sighed again. "Well, Ike is one of the strongest men I've ever known, and a great one. And he's gay. That was what they meant by 'messed up,' though that certainly is a disparaging term."  
Tiki raised her eyebrows. "Gay?"  
The young queen nodded. "Yes... in his own fashion."  
They suddenly heard footsteps, and Elincia glanced back. "Elincia?" Lucia called, coming around a corner. She stopped and smiled, seeing the Queen. "Ah, there you are. I knew I'd find you here."  
"Lucia," Elincia sighed. "What's happened now?"  
"A few things, actually." She came closer and pulled out a few letters. "Bastian sent a message detailing the situation in Daein. The Apostle is curious about the Alteans—don't ask me how she found out about them so fast—and sends the royals her regards. _And,"_ she paused for dramatic effect, "Ike is here."  
Elincia shot to her feet. "He is?" she demanded.  
"Yup. He and the others were near Melior for a job and he decided to drop by. He said he had something important to talk to you about, though, so I suppose it isn't just a social visit."  
"Well, give me the letters, please. Is Ike here now?"  
"No," Lucia replied, handing the letters over. "He said that they would be just outside Melior for a day or two, and he might come by tomorrow. Or you could go to them, later, but he said they might be busy. Oh, and one last thing—Geoffrey said he had some reports to show you?"  
She sighed and thumbed through the letters. "Oh, yes... thank you, Lucia." She turned and nodded to Elice Caeda and the others. "If you'll excuse me." Then she followed her foster sister back down the garden path. Mark and Lucina both got up and followed her for a moment, before running over to break up William and Deirdre.  
Elice Caeda put down her sword and leaned back casually. "What do you think, Tiki?" she asked. "Should we go see the famous General Ike?"  
Tiki thought for a moment, then nodded. "If he comes by, I'll be sure to talk to him. He sounds like an interesting character..."  
"Who does now?"  
The two girls turned to see Marcia and Sharon, the two pegasus knights who had found them, coming down the garden path. (They dropped by every now and then when they were off duty.) "Marcia, Sharon. Good to see you." Elice Caeda said cheerfully. "We were just talking about Lord Ike."  
"I believe he is a Commander now, your Highness." Marcia corrected.  
"Ah. Have you met him?"  
"She traveled with him in the Mad King's War." Sharon said proudly. "She's a veteran, our Marcia."  
"Oh, stop it." the pink-haired knight said, elbowing her friend good-naturedly.  
"You traveled with him? What is he like?" Tiki asked.  
Marcia shrugged. "Well... he's noble, kind. An excellent fighter. He married a guy—Zelgius, a former Begnion general—but neither of them really act like any gays I know. Er..." She blushed.  
"They don't act... girly." Sharon said. "At all. Or so she's told me—I haven't met them myself."  
Elice Caeda frowned. "That's interesting."  
"You aren't talking about me, are you?"  
The four girls turned to look at Roy, who had approached them while they were talking. He wore a spare tunic and pants from the servant's quarters, and his frizzy red hair was held back by a blue headband. His eyes sparkled as he slouched casually, crossing his arms. "As far as I recall, _you_ haven't married Zelgius." Sharon said, rolling her eyes.  
"Well, the noble and kind part, then." he replied.  
"The noble part?" Sharon laughed. "I thought you meant the 'girly' part..."  
"What's that supposed to mean?" he demanded.  
"What do you think it means?" she countered.  
Marcia rolled her eyes. "Are you two going to flirt all day, or what?"  
"_That_ was flirting?" Sharon asked incredulously.  
Roy shrugged. "I dunno. I got a while, though."  
"What happened to Marth?" Elice Caeda asked.  
"Eh. He wandered off to talk to Jak."  
"You lost, didn't you?" Sharon asked slyly.  
"I did not!" he replied indignantly. "At least... not as badly as usual."  
"Hah!"  
"Does this mean you won't go on a date with me?"  
"That remains to be seen. I have a _job,_ you know..."  
Tiki laughed and made a flicking motion with her hand. "Oh, run along, children. Have fun."  
Roy grinned and grabbed Sharon's hand, dashing off down the path. She ran to keep up with him, laughing. "I thought you said Roy was dating a girl in Altea." Marcia commented.  
"He was." Elice Caeda replied. "And before that he had a girlfriend in Medon, and one in Gra, and another girl from Altea. He's a... womanizer, you could say."  
"Though he is a little young." Tiki added.  
"A little!? He's only what, fifteen years old?" Marcia asked incredulously. "He's younger than Sharon!"  
"Well, that isn't going to stop him."  
Marcia laughed. "He's worse than Gatrie, and that's saying something!"  
"Who?" Elice Caeda asked.  
"One of the Greil Mercenaries. Ike's mercenaries."  
"Hmm. Would you tell us about them?" Tiki asked.  
Marcia shrugged. "All right. Well, they're led by Commander Ike Greil, who's the son of the old commander..."

Ike and Zelgius stopped by the following day. Elincia was happy to see him, but surprised at how tired he looked. He had deep shadows on his face and his eyes were world-weary. His husband stood beside him with a concerned look on his face. "Ike, Zelgius." Elincia said, a little overly cheerful. "Good to see you."  
"And you, Your Majesty." Zelgius said pleasantly, his worried eyes not leaving Ike. The young Hero nodded, but said nothing.  
"Is there anything you need?" Elincia asked, suddenly uncomfortable.  
"Can I speak to you privately?" Ike asked abruptly.  
She nodded. "Yes, I suppose so. Come on." Geoffrey shot her a curious look, but she just shrugged.  
They went into a side room and Zelgius closed the door. "Ike, what is it?" Elincia asked.  
Ike pulled his right glove off and held it up, the back facing her. She stared at the strange triangular mark. "Do you have any idea what this is?" he asked.  
She thought for a moment. "Hmm. I... I _might_ have seen it a while ago, but I can't place it... Where did it come from?"  
"That's what I want to know!" he snapped, then caught himself and looked away. "I'm sorry. I've been driving myself crazy trying to find out what this is. It appeared about three weeks ago, shortly after I left Melior."  
She stepped forward and touched the bottom right triangle, which still glowed with a faint yellow light. "It certainly isn't natural," she murmured. "Who else knows about it?"  
"Elena." Zelgius said softly, causing her to start—she'd forgotten he was there. "Mist, Titania. And Soren. That's it."  
"Soren?" Elincia frowned. "And _he_ doesn't know what it is?"  
"We were hoping you would have an idea... you, or the Altean refugees." Zelgius said.  
That was when she remembered. "Of _course!_" she said, snapping her fingers. "I remember now!"  
"What?" Ike demanded.  
"Marth Lowell. He had a mark like this when we rescued him—except that this triangle was glowing," she gently tapped the bottom left triangle, "and not the other."  
"Prince Marth?" Ike asked. "Have you talked to him about it?"  
"No. I didn't think to bring it up... Listen; he went out with some of the Knights, but I'll ask him about it when he comes back. I'll tell you what he says tomorrow, okay?"  
Ike nodded. His face seemed to have brightened slightly. "Thank you, Elincia."

They left the side room, but now there was someone waiting for them. "Commander Ike, I presume?" the elegant, viridian-haired woman asked quietly.  
Ike nodded, a puzzled look on his face. Elincia quickly said "Ike, this is Princess Tiki, one of the Altean refugees."  
"Just Tiki." the woman corrected. "I'm not really a princess of anything anymore." She turned to Zelgius. "And you are...?"  
"Zelgius." he said, nodding respectfully.  
"Ike's husband. Well met." she replied, before turning back to Ike. "You are a quite famous young man, Commander. Marcia has told me much about you. You certainly have accomplished a lot for a boy your age."  
"Thanks—I think," Ike said, obviously unnerved.  
"So tell me—is it true that there are dragons on Tellius? And you have me them?"  
He nodded. "Yes. The Dragon laguz live in Goldoa, but they've remained isolated for centuries. I only know a few of them."  
"And... tell me..." She pulled something out of her pocket and held it up for him to see. "Do they have anything like this?"  
He studied the object. It was a silver-white sphere, about as big as her hand. He frowned. "I don't know. I haven't seen much of Goldoa. Why do you ask?"  
She slipped it into her pocket. "It is called a Dragonsphere. It allows the Manaketes to transform into our dragon forms. However, my sphere's power is drained, so I cannot use it. I was hoping perhaps the dragons of Tellius would have a way to recharge it... but I see you cannot help. I am sorry for wasting your time." She turned to leave.  
"Wait." Ike said. She paused, glancing back at him. "I can ask my staff officer about it. He knows quite a lot. I'll be back tomorrow—will you see me then? Hopefully I'll have an answer."  
She smiled warmly. "Thank you, Commander. I'll look forward to it. A pleasure to meet you both." Then she spun and left the room.  
"What an odd girl," Zelgius commented. "She seemed... older than she looked."  
_"Way_ older." Ike added, shooting a glance at Elincia.  
She laughed. "Oh, all right. She is a Manakete, which is like Altea's form of a Dragon laguz. And according to Princess Elice, she is over a thousand years old."  
Ike's eyebrows shot up. "A _thousand?_"  
"Possibly closer to two. She was one of the original heroes who traveled with Marth the first. She was already over five hundred years old then—a child, for her kind. And apparently she's hardly aged five years since then—in body, anyway, but her mind is far more matured."  
Zelgius nodded. "Indeed. Quite an... interesting character."

"Well?" Titania asked abruptly when Ike and Zelgius returned.  
"She doesn't know." Ike replied. Soren sighed in frustration and hit his head on the table. "But," the commander quickly amended, "apparently Prince Marth has the same symbol, so she's going to ask him about it."  
Soren hit his head on the table again. "May I get some rest now?" he moaned. Without waiting for a response, he fell asleep. Elena petted his hair soothingly(it had always been a great fascination for her, and she liked playing with it...much to his disgust).  
Mist sat down. "Sometimes I wish we were back to the days before Dad died," she lamented. "Things were simpler then."  
Ike sighed. "Mist. We'll work this out, okay? And then everything will be back to normal."

"Marth?" Elincia asked, later that day. It was shortly after dinner and they were sitting out by themselves on a balcony overlooking the garden.  
"Yes?" he replied.  
"What is that mark on your hand?"  
He was silent for a minute, looking down at his right hand. Then he pulled the glove off and held the mark up so that she could see it. "This appeared on my hand almost a year ago." he said softly. "Three months before the Shadow attacked."  
The bottom left triangle glowed golden. She touched it gently, and shivered when she realized how _cold_ the mark was. When she curiously touched his arm, she found it warm. "Do you have any idea where it came from?" she asked.  
"No." he replied. "It was an ordinary day, when... I felt my hand burning, all of a sudden. Like it was on fire. No; worse than that... more like it had been cut off and thrust into fire. I... when I looked at it again, _that_ was there." He clenched his hand into a fist and lowered it. "Two months later it happened again. That was when it started glowing. A week after that, the Shadow appeared."  
She felt her blood run cold. "What happened?"  
"He came out of nowhere, suddenly appearing with an army in the middle of Akaneia. He negotiated at first. I believe he said he was from some continent called Hyrule. He was... cordial. Then he swooped in and destroyed Talys." He took a deep breath. "Before anyone knew what was happening, he'd destroyed Gra as well. As time went by, his army only seemed to get bigger. We attacked him. Won some battles... lost ten times more. One by one, he ravished the countries, burned them to the ground, and killed everyone within them. I... I think he was looking for something. And he got angry when he couldn't find it.  
"Eventually, the majority of the remaining Altean Royal Knights banded with the Knights of Sable and the last armies of Aurelis, and they marched out to attempt to destroy the Shadow. My father led them. As a... backup plan, or so he called it, he left a contingent of the Altean Royal Knights behind to defend the last of the nobles. Me, my mother, my siblings, Tiki... and Princess Tamina of Medon, my fiancé. He said if he and the others did not return, we were to board the _Sea Cat_ and sail away, to escape the Shadow.  
"But that only enraged the Shadow more... for now I believe that I was the one he was after. Because of this." He held his hand up again.  
"Why?" Elincia asked. "No, wait. Please continue."  
After a moment to collect his thoughts, he said "That was the last time I saw my father. He rode out, and we waited. Waited for two weeks. Waited for three weeks. And waited, for another month longer. But... we eventually had to accept that he wasn't coming back.  
"We boarded the _Sea Cat_ with the thirty Knights left to guard us, as well as the crew. We sailed for a few marks, and when we looked back the castle was burning." He choked up and couldn't speak for a while. Finally he continued; "It was barely another mark after that when the Shadow attacked. He came down on us, riding a dragon that did not revert, leading two score of his strange flying lizard creatures. They hit us, and they hit us hard. The crew was killed, as well as many of the Knights.  
"And... I saw him raise his sword in the air, and I realized... he was wielding the Falchion. My father's sword. The Hero King's sword. And... he ran Tamina through with that blade. "I attacked him in a blind fury. At that moment, I cared nothing for anything else. I only wanted to avenge my father, my country, Tamina... to destroy the man who had destroyed my home. And I failed. He defeated me. He stabbed my leg, then sliced the sword across my hands as I fell. He... he laughed at me, exhibiting the Falchion for me to see. 'Your father's blood is on this sword,' he said.  
"Then, when I fell and my gloves came off, he saw the mark on my hand, and he was _enraged_. He would have killed me then, I think, if... if my mother..." He choked up again, looking down, his fingernails digging into his palms. Elincia gently uncurled his fingers and wiped the blood off. A salty tear fell onto her hand. "My mother stepped in the way," Marth agonized. "She saved my life with her own. And... she... The Shadow... he lowered his hand for a moment. He had a mark like this... only the top triangle was glowing. He saw me see it. He smiled. Then he abandoned the sword and left. He was just... _gone._ And he didn't come back. I don't know why...  
"He'd killed most of us in the attack. There were only about twenty of us left, and half of us were badly injured. Seven died of their wounds. And I... I threw Falchion into the sea." He choked. "I threw the Hero King's sword i-into the sea. B-because it was the blade that slew my parents. A-and I threw it away."  
Elincia held his hand tightly and waited for his shoulders to stop shaking... gazing into his beautiful eyes when he looked up, at his handsome face. "I don't blame you," she murmured.  
"But I blame myself." he replied. "B-because of this mark... this mark on _my_ hand, my parents died. My parents _died._ And _I..._ _ran..._ _away!_"  
"Marth..." Impulsively she hugged him, pulling him close to her, letting her face rest on his chest. "It's not your _fault._"  
He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her hair. She snuggled him closer, and when he finally pulled back she kissed him gently on the cheek. "You should get some sleep." she said soothingly.  
He sniffed slightly, looking embarrassed. "I-I'm sorry..."  
"Ssh. It's all right." she murmured, hugging him again. "It's all right..."

_They have stopped running. Thank the Gods. Finally, I have pinpointed their location. It is only now a matter of time... and yet, I still cannot find Courage. Why? Why is its position hidden from me!? Is it because I am using its powers...?_


	3. II

**~Chapter Two  
**

"...and therefore it is quite possible that the Dragon laguz _could,_ in fact, recharge your Dragonsphere." Soren finished, closing his book with a snap.  
It was the following day, and Ike had brought the young sage to the castle to speak with Tiki. He had been quite eager to meet her, much to Ike's surprise.  
Tiki smiled. "Thank you, Soren. You've been most helpful... I must say, I have never met a human before with such insight on the Dragons."  
He shrugged. "And I have never met a Manakete before—only read about them in ancient books. They intrigue me. Tell me—why is it that you need the Dragonspheres to shift? Are you some sort of—undeveloped form of laguz?"  
"Well," she said, fingering her chin contemplatively, "now _that_ is an interesting question..."  
As Soren and Tiki began talking about Manaketes and laguz, Ike watched them from a distance. "Hmm. They're getting on better than I expected." Ike commented.  
"I have to agree," Zelgius said. "I had thought that Soren hated all non-Beorc, but apparently that isn't the case."  
Geoffrey cleared his throat from behind them. Ike turned around. "Ah, Geoffrey. Good to see you." he said cheerfully.  
"Elincia will see you now," Geoffrey said, looking a bit stiff. Ike frowned, but shook it off and nodded.  
The young queen looked up and smiled cheerfully when the mercenaries entered. "Ah. Ike, Zelgius. Geoffrey, would you leave us, please?"  
"Of course, Your Majesty." the Knight Commander said stiffly before leaving.  
Elincia frowned, then looked back to Ike. "I spoke with Marth last night."  
"And?" Ike prompted.  
"Did you experience any sharp pains before the mark appeared, or before the glowing started?"  
He nodded. "It hurt a lot when it first appeared, and then started glowing shortly afterwards. Why?"  
"The same thing happened to Marth. He doesn't know much about the mark itself, but... he believes it has something to do with the person he calls 'the Shadow'."  
"Who?"  
"The Shadow is the one who led the forces that destroyed Akaneia. Apparently, he originally claimed to be from some other continent. He became enraged when he saw the mark on Marth's hand. And he had a mark like it... only the top triangle was the one glowing. So Marth believes that they are related somehow."  
"Hmm." Zelgius said contemplatively. "Three triangles, with a different one glowing on each person. Perhaps the triangles link to each other somehow?"  
"I thought that too." Ike said. "Maybe they can be used as some sort of tracking device?"  
Zelgius nodded. "That would explain how the Shadow found Marth, if they are really linked."  
Elincia came over and looked at the mark when Ike pulled his glove off. "But how?" she asked.  
Ike looked at his hand, frowning. "I don't know..."  
"Try pressing the one that glows," Elincia suggested.  
Ike shrugged and pressed his finger on it. It turned bright green. Then, all of a sudden, his eyes rolled up and he passed out. Zelgius caught him as he fell. He held him for just a few seconds before the younger man woke up. "Ike?" he asked worriedly.  
"That was weird..." Ike mumbled, sitting up.  
Elincia knelt down beside him. "What happened?"  
"There... I saw a young man, twenty or so... blue hair... blue eyes... he was in a garden, talking to a red-haired boy."  
"Marth? Roy?" Elincia frowned. "Perhaps that is how it works... you see the other people for a few seconds, wherever they are."  
"That seems the most logical explanation." Zelgius remarked.  
Ike nodded. "And... there was..." He closed his eyes tightly. "A... somebody standing in front of a bright light... he was all black, dark, like a silhouette."  
"The Shadow!" Elincia exclaimed, and Ike nodded.  
"I assume so. Then... I heard a dragon roar, and the Shadow turned around. Those—Oh Goddess!" Ike's eyes snapped open. "His eyes, Elincia! They—he—the Shadow is _not_ _human!_ No human would have eyes like those!"  
"What eyes?" Zelgius asked, placing his hand over Ike's mark.  
"Blood-red ones." Ike replied. "Blank. Flat. No irises, no pupils. Glowing red. ...I swear, Elincia, those eyes were _feral."_

"...so hopefully, if I can figure out how to use the mark's powers, I can figure out how to turn it off." Ike finished. He was back at the Mercenaries' camp, two hours after his meeting with Elincia.  
Elena hugged him. "I'm so proud of you, Dad!" she said.  
He shrugged. "What's there to be proud of? All I did was touch the... darn thing."  
"You're figuring out the problem without Soren's help." she said, her eyes twinkling. "Though you did need Elincia's."  
He raised an eyebrow in mock indignation. "What!? You mean I _can't_ figure out problems on my own?"  
She laughed. "Well, Dad, you're going to have to answer that yourself."  
"Ah! I don't believe it. My own daughter doubts my intelligence." he complained playfully. "I still wonder how old you really are."  
"Ten winters is as far as I recall, Dad." she said condescendingly.  
"You told me it was eleven."  
"Oh dear. Apparently I've forgotten one already." She grinned and skipped off, humming the galdr that Mist had taught her.  
He sighed as Zelgius approached. "She's growing up too fast, Zelgius." he said mournfully. "I mean, just two years ago she was like an infant! And now she acts like she's as old as Mist... How did that happen?"  
"All parents feel that way, at one point or another." his husband replied comfortingly.  
"Still. It feels like Mist all over again—but different, you know?"  
He nodded. "Yes. My sister used to be much the same way."  
Ike frowned. "Right. Kira or something, wasn't it? You never told me much about her."  
"Kita." Zelgius sighed. "She... she was Branded, and our father hated her, but, still... she was always his daughter. She looked a bit like him. She even imitated him, on his better days. She was innocent like your sister, when she was young... like Elena and your sister. But... well... she took too much after our father." Ike was silent, waiting for Zelgius to continue. "She began to hate me... and herself." his husband finally said. "For being Branded. So much that she ordered me out of the house, after our grandmother's death. The next time I saw her was over twenty years later, when I was passing by on my way to Begnion with Lord Sephiran. She was desperate to find a way to destroy the Brand... she looked so tired, and sad. The next time I heard her name, it was Sephiran telling me he'd learned that she was dead—died of a heart attack, and so young, especially for a Branded." He closed his eyes regretfully. "Poor girl... I wish I could have done something to help her."  
"We all have regrets... mistakes we've made." Ike said cautiously. "But it is too late to fix those mistakes now. Far too late..."  
Both of them knew what he was talking about.

_August 24__th__, 648._

The Greil Mercenaries were returning to their fort in west Crimea. Soren decided to stay in Melior for a bit, to study dragons with Tiki.  
When they arrived, Ranulf was waiting for them. "Heh! I finally found you!" the cat laguz said when he saw Ike. "You're never home!"  
"Well, we are relatively poor mercenaries." Ike said cheerfully. "We have to work or we don't eat."  
"You don't have to sound so morose about it." Ranulf replied sarcastically.  
Ike shrugged. "Was I? Well. Good to see you, Ranulf."  
"You look good, Ike." Ranulf said cheerily. "Shaggy."  
"Shaggy!" Ike said incredulously. "I haven't messed with my hair since the Mad King's War!"  
"That's what I mean." Ranulf said. "Your hair's getting long, Ike. It's already almost shoulder length."  
"Is not!" the Ranger replied indignantly.  
"Is too!"  
Ike frowned. "Well... maybe it is a little long."  
"Your hair is fine." Zelgius said, entering the room behind Ike.  
"Zelgius." Ranulf said, his voice not changing. However, his tail stopped twitching.  
Ike noticed. "Ranulf? Is something wrong?" he asked.  
"It's nothing..." Ranulf mumbled. "Just... er... thinking."  
"Well." Zelgius interrupted. "Why are you here, then?"  
"Straight to the point, I see." Ranulf muttered. Then he sighed. "Ike. I have some bad news. Very soon... war will come to us again."  
"What?!" Ike demanded.  
"Gallia, Phoenicis and Kilvas... Those three countries have united to become the Laguz Alliance." Ranulf explained.  
"...Who are they fighting?" Zelgius asked.  
"The Begnion Empire."  
"...You're right about it being sudden." Ike said. "I know there are—" All of a sudden, he stiffened and gasped, nearly falling.  
Zelgius caught him quickly. "Ike!"  
Ike closed his eyes and his breathing quickened. He was shaking. Ranulf stared. "What the—? What happened?"  
"I...It..." Ike gasped, clutching at his right hand. Then, all of a sudden, he stopped shaking. His eyes opened again, puzzled.  
"How bad was it?" Zelgius asked worriedly.  
"Not... not as bad as the first time." Ike replied. Then he stared at his hand.  
"What's going on? What's with your hand?" Ranulf asked, confused.  
Ike pulled his glove off and stared at the triangle mark. It wasn't glowing any more.

Elincia was talking to Geoffrey and Lucia in the throne room when the three Altean nobles came in, worried expressions on their faces. "Is everything all right?" Elincia asked, though she realized it was probably a dumb question. Marth was pale. He was holding a piece of paper.  
"Something happened." Roy said. "Me and Elice Caeda were talking to him when, all of a sudden, his mark started glowing blue."  
"All the way through." Elice Caeda added. "All the triangles."  
"But... why?" Geoffrey asked.  
"I... I think the Shadow used his mark to contact mine." Marth said shakily. "I... I got this weird image in my head, of a message... words..."  
Elincia stood up and walked down to them. "He took a quill and began writing..." Elice Caeda told her nervously. "We... we didn't do anything... we just waited for him to finish. When he was done, he put the pen aside and nearly collapsed, and when he got up again he was fine. And the mark wasn't glowing anymore."  
Elincia looked down at his hand. It indeed was not glowing. "What did you write?" she asked.  
In response, he offered her the paper. "It's for you."  
She took it and read it, her face paling slightly as she did so.

_To the illustrious Queen Elincia of Crimea;  
_ _I trust this letter finds you well, and I hope that you were not alarmed by the means which I sent it to you. If you were, I apologize greatly, to you and the young prince you shelter._  
_I hail from the land of Hyrule, far across the sea, the continent of which I am honored to name myself King. Personally, I did not know that any other continents existed besides Hyrule after the Great Flood, but after flying a long way I came across Akaneia, which was a great surprise, as you may suspect. After discovering that other continents still existed, I explored, seeking out other lands. At one point, I began following a small ship of Alteans—one of them, the Crown Prince of Altea, holds something very precious to me. As you have given the Alteans refuge in your kingdom, I thought it only fair to use him as my messenger, just this once. I shall not do so again. You have my word on that.  
_ _I pray that we may come to a peaceful understanding. I will come to your castle in two days' time, to discuss these matters. I give you my word that I will bring no harm to you or your friends, despite what the Alteans might say. Look for a shadow in the sky._ _May fortune favor you. With all sincerity,  
_ _Dark Link  
_ _King of Hyrule_

Elincia was silent for a long time after she finished reading the letter. "You cannot speak to him." Marth finally said. His voice was flat.  
"Marth," Elincia said gently, "he has asked only to speak. I will not deny that."  
"Have you heard nothing of what I have said? This is _exactly_ what he said to Talys, before he _destroyed_ it! He is a _monster!_"  
"I understand your pain, Marth. But I will not deny him an audience."  
"I will not condone this." the prince declared.  
"You don't have to."  
He sighed. "Then I shall pray that you have not doomed Tellius to the same fate as Akaneia."

_I have found them. I _will_ get it back. Praise Din, I am so close...!_


	4. III

**~Chapter Three**

_August 26__th__, 648._

Marth refused to leave his room, but Roy and Elice came to the throne room around midday, to wait for the King of Hyrule's arrival.  
They were talking quietly in the corner when Kieran entered the room. "Second-in-command Royal Knight Kieran reporting!"  
"What is it, Kieran?" Elincia asked tiredly.  
"I believe your visitor is arriving!" He gestured to the balcony that led into the throne room. "He should be here in a moment!" Then he retreated to stand near the door.  
Elincia sat up straighter. "Time to see who the Shadow is," she murmured.  
A moment later, there was a huge roar that caused everyone in the room to start. Then the light from the balcony was cut off as a mighty dragon landed on the balcony, huge red-black reptilian wings setting it down smoothly and blowing great gusts of wind into the room, blood-red pupil-less eyes glowing with an inner feral light. Geoffrey's hand went to his spear, and Lucia's to her sword.  
"Steady," Elincia muttered.  
Then the dragon lowered its wings and the young queen realized that it bore a rider, though it had no saddle or reins she could see. The rider swung off smoothly and stepped forward, stroking the dragon briefly before entering the room.  
A boy. That's what he was. He appeared to be no more than sixteen years old, yet he stood with a regal bearing, and his eyes—those remarkable blank red eyes that Ike had described—were slightly narrowed, his expression calculating. He wore a black tunic and dark red cape, and a long sword with an elegant blue-violet winged hilt was sheathed on his back. But nothing on him was as dark as the utter blackness of his skin—it seemed to draw out all the light of the room when it came to him, so utterly dark was it. His hair, barely a very dark gray against his skin, fell to his shoulders and over his eyes. He was a perfect compliment to the dark dragon that stood majestically behind him.  
"The Shadow," Roy spat, and his identity was confirmed.  
The boy walked forward and bowed eloquently to the queen. "Your Majesty," he said pleasantly, the syllables rolling off his tongue. "Well met. I am Dark Link. King of Hyrule."  
"Conqueror of Akaneia," Roy added sharply, gripping his sword. Elice put a hand on his arm. "Murderer of innocents."  
"Ah." Dark Link said, and Elincia couldn't tell who he was looking at. "The young prince of Altea. My greetings."  
"You—" Roy began, but Elice hushed him.  
"Well met, King Dark Link of Hyrule." Elincia said cautiously. "I am Elincia, Queen of Crimea... but you already know my name."  
"And it is an honor to meet you in person, Your Majesty. I have heard much about you." he replied smoothly.  
"Strange words from one who claims to have never seen Tellius before." the queen countered.  
He laughed—a cold, heartless sound that she hoped not to hear again. "Of course... I have not come to your country before, but there are many who would speak of Queen Elincia to a wandering traveler. Libraries are quite easy to access, for one who tries. My... subjects have been in your country for some time. They are most informative."  
"Spies?" Geoffrey questioned.  
"Informants, Royal Knight Commander Geoffrey." Dark Link replied. "Queen's... consort."  
Geoffrey stiffened. "Your information is misplaced." Elincia said darkly.  
"Ah." Dark Link smiled. "My apologies. I only know what one may hear from the various rumors and gossip, so please forgive my... insolence."  
"I would not forgive you for anything, you craven son of a—" Again, Elice stopped Roy with a hand.  
"What brings you to Tellius?" Elincia asked.  
"Mere curiosity." Dark Link replied cordially. "A year previously, I believed all land to have been destroyed, save Hyrule. Now that I learned that that is not the case, I am... curious as to how the people evolved on the different... lands. I understand Tellius is the resting place of... of the Goddess?"  
"Yes..." the young queen said. "The goddess Ashera rests in Begnion, according to legend."  
"In Hyrule, the goddess is called Hylia." the shadow said contemplatively. "And she was succeeded by the Three, who created the land, our laws, and the... inhabitants. As you see, our lands do not have much common, other than language. I am... fascinated by Tellius."  
"You say the languages are the same, yet you speak with a foreign accent." Lucia commented. "And your words are off, slightly..."  
Another cold, heartless laugh. "Forgive my manner of speech, Lady Lucia, but I admit that language is a bit... foreign to me. I was not a person of... great learning, previously. My station was won by deed, not birthright."  
"You killed Hyrule's king, too?" Roy spat.  
A cold, calculating smile. "No, young Roy of Altea... The king died, and in the resulting power struggle I gained victory. A simple truth."  
Roy started to speak again, but his sister silenced him. "Why are you here?" Elice demanded.  
"At the moment, there is only one thing that concerns you, Princess Elice." Dark Link replied, looking her way. "To recover something that I... lost." He turned back to Elincia and stepped forward. "Tell me, young queen. Have you ever seen a mark like this?" He held up his left hand. The glove was cut to reveal the back, and a familiar triple triangle marked it—a pale gray against the ever-black of his skin. The top triangle pulsed red with a heartbeat—Dark Link's heartbeat.  
"Perhaps I have." Elincia said cautiously. "Why do you ask?"  
"This mark represents something of mine." he replied. Elincia noticed that the pulsing red flashed brighter when he spoke. "It brands the... the unwitting carrier of the object. It is in three pieces. I have one. The other two... were lost. Young Prince Marth, I believe, carries one piece."  
"You aren't getting anywhere near Marth, you bitch!" Roy snarled. "You_ killed _our parents! You_ destroyed _Altea! And you think we would consent to hand him over to you!? You must be_ insane! _You_ are _insane! You're a_ demon!"  
_ "Calm yourself." Dark Link said, lowering his hand. "I have no intention of hurting your brother, or any of you."  
"Too late!"  
"Roy," Elice said soothingly. "Calm down..."  
"I have no intention of hurting Prince Marth," Dark Link repeated. "I simply need to retrieve the shard of the... object he carries. Once I have done, I shan't trouble them again."  
"If it is as simple as you say," Elincia questioned, "then why did you destroy Akaneia for it? How can you answer the crime of the destruction of an entire _continent?_"  
"A foolish mistake." the shadow agreed. "One that I do not intend to repeat... I do apologize for that. I was... angry, and I exacted my own... personal vengeance upon innocents."  
"Exacted personal—? How can you throw aside innocent people's lives so carelessly!?" Roy shouted.  
"I apologize. I regret my past actions, and I wish to end the issue, now." Dark Link said firmly. "But I need all three shards of the object. I have one. The Prince has another. I would prefer to keep the Alteans in my custody until I have obtained the location of the third. When I have found it... then I'll take the Prince's shard, and then they will be free to go. If I cannot find it... well..." He shrugged helplessly. "What comes after remains to be seen. What say you, Queen Crimea?"  
"It is not my decision to make." Elincia replied. "I shall ask Prince Marth, but I cannot guarantee an answer. From him, or the other refugees."  
The shadow nodded understandingly. "As you wish. I shall depart. For now, I will be in the mountains bordering your country with Begnion... I trust that does not offend?"  
"Not at all, so long as you do not disturb our border posts." she replied.  
His eyes flashed. "Very well. I shall return in a week for your answer. Good fortune follow you." He nodded respectfully, then spun about, sweeping the cape out behind him, and easily swung up on the dragon. "(Fly for the mountains.)" he called in the Ancient Tongue—a language Elincia was surprised he knew, and barely understood herself. The dragon roared and reared back, then leapt sideways off the balcony and glided for a moment before flapping hard to clear the walls. After a minute, the dragon and its rider were already disappearing into the distance.  
Elincia let out a long breath. "That went... well." she said tentatively.  
Roy was fuming. "That... that _bitch..._ of all the... _bitch!_"  
Elice slapped him. "Watch your language!" she scolded, dragging him out of the room. "Let's go talk to Marth."  
Elincia waited for them to leave. "What about his request?" Lucia asked, letting go of her sword hilt. "Would you actually consider handing the Alteans over?"  
She shook her head firmly. "No. Not against their will."  
"What if he tries to kidnap them?" Geoffrey asked. "I believe that one is capable of anything. He may try something."  
Elincia nodded grimly. "They'll be safe from him. I'll make sure of that."

_In the library of Melior, the dead of night. A shadow slips off of the dragon and lands lightly, his boots not making a sound._ _"(Wait for me here.)" he whispers. Then he pads into the back of the library, his glowing eyes needing no light to see by._ _He has heard tales... of dark magic created in Begnion, that none would dare speak of. The dark magic that could control the life of a country..._  
_He finds the historical tomes and scans them. He alights on one; a thick, dusty tome without a visible title or author. He pulls it out and flips to the index, scanning the words quickly._ _He smiles. Perfect.  
_ _Five minutes later he is out of the library, and there is no sign that anyone ever was there, other than a gap between books and a few lonely footprints in the dust._

"No."  
"But Marth..."  
"No!" the young prince shouted, his fist clenching in anger. "I _never_ want to see that... that _creature_ again! You can tell your 'Dark Link' that I reject his offer."  
Elincia sighed in frustration. "But Marth, you hate that mark. He gives you a chance to get rid of it..."  
"Elincia! Do you honestly think that I would _ever_ want to do _anything_ to help that demon after what he's done to me!?" Marth demanded.  
"It wouldn't take long! And then he won't ever bother you again!"  
"How do you know that?" the prince questioned. "For all we know, he just wants us so he can _kill_ us! And who knows what he would do with this 'object' if he got all the pieces!? What if he destroys Crimea?!"  
The young queen narrowed her eyes. "We don't know that."  
Marth stared at her incredulously. "Don't _know!?_ After everything he's done..."  
"You have until Friday to decide." Elincia said decidedly. "Come to me with your final answer then."  
"You can have my final answer now_._ _No!"  
_ "I'll come back when you've calmed down," the queen said, before turning and sweeping out of the room.  
Marth sat down on his bed and looked at his hand. He suddenly cried out in anger, raking his fingernails against the back of his right hand, drawing four jagged lines of blood across the black triangles. The bottom left one flashed a dark blue against the blood, and he screamed in pure agony. Then he fell back and held his head in his hands, ignoring the thick red drops that ran off his wrist and onto his face. "Damn it!" he moaned. "Damn it all!"  
He tasted something odd. He wasn't sure if it was tears or blood.

Elice Caeda and Roy left Marth to his sleep and went to speak to the rest of the Alteans. The two royals stood on the edge of the fountain in the gardens, their knights gathered around them, long after the sun had set.  
"The Shadow came." Elice Caeda announced, and there was a collective gasp. "He's asked Queen Elincia to hand us over to him."  
"Surely she wouldn't?" William demanded. "Surely she would refuse him?"  
"I don't know, Will." Elice Caeda said regretfully. "I—It pains me to say it, but I believe she was actually considering it."  
Jak swore under his breath. "Well, then I guess we're homeless again." he spat.  
"Jak." Luna said, taking his hand. "We don't know that."  
"I agree with the rogue." Dustin said. "If the Shadow is here, we'll have to run again, lest he kill us as well and take what he claims to be his."  
"But Dustin!" Kester protested, "Surely you don't want to _run_ from a fight!?"  
"Well, no—but a good knight knows when a... _tactical retreat_ is best."  
"We can't leave!" Roy shouted. "He'll just hunt us down, wherever we flee! We have to kill him, now, before the rest of his army appears! This is our only chance!"  
"But we cannot kill him." Deirdre said softly. "He takes the wounds but... he cares not for pain."  
"I agree with her." Elwyn said. "We can't fight someone whose wounds fix themselves, even as he takes on new ones!"  
Mark stepped forward and looked up at Elice Caeda. "We—do we have to run again, milady?" he asked.  
Roy jumped down from the fountain and patted the boy's reddish hair comfortingly. "Don't worry, Mark. We'll figure it out. You and Lucina should get some rest."  
Lucina stepped up to her brother and shook her head firmly. "No. We want to know what's going to happen to us this time."  
"Lucina..." Tiki said sadly.  
"Mother!" Mark answered for his sister. "We're three hundred and forty-eight years old. You don't have to treat us like children."  
"Ah... I know, Mark." Tiki replied, taking his hand. "I'm sorry."  
"I don't want to run." Lucina said, taking her mother's other hand. "I don't want to have to run anymore."  
"We may have no choice." her mother said.  
"So what will we do?" Deirdre asked. "Flee, or fight?"  
"Or stay, and hope that Queen Elincia will not hand us over?" William added.  
"We'll put it to vote." Elice Caeda decided. "All in favor of staying, whether to fight or hope, say aye." There was a chorus of ayes from Mark, Lucina, Kester, Roy, and William. "All in favor of leaving?" Another chorus of ayes. Tiki, Elwyn, Deirdre, Dustin, Luna, and Jak.  
Roy looked at Elice Caeda expectantly, waiting for her decision. "...Aye." she said, not meeting his eyes. "It is decided. We leave."  
"Are you sure of that?" Tiki asked. Everybody's eyes turned her way. "Perhaps, since he wants all of us, we should split up—make it harder for him to find the Prince, for if he gets ahold of Marth's mark who knows what damage he could incur. Perhaps if we all go separate ways, he will give up his pursuit."  
"I don't want to leave Crimea." Mark said firmly. "Queen Elincia has been good to us."  
"But I agree with Lady Tiki." William said. "The Shadow to give up the chase is what we all want, no? If this is the easiest way, then so be it!"  
"It may also be the easiest way for him to kill us, one by one." Elwyn chided.  
"If there is any chance that we can drive him off the trail, then I will take it!" Kester proclaimed, his eyes shining. "I would see that dastard fail for all the lives he's taken!"  
"If necessary, I would gladly give my life for Prince Marth." Dustin said. "I'll agree to Tiki's plan."  
"As will I." Deirdre added.  
There was another chorus of ayes. Elice Caeda nodded, pleased. "Alright, good. Has anyone got a map?"  
Jak produced one, as well as a candle. Elwyn had a pen. Elice Caeda hopped off the fountain and they put the map and candle on the stone rim, huddling around it. After a long discussion, they decided on their destinations. Each of them would go to a different country, in small groups ranging from one to three people.  
Jak was going to Kilvas; he hoped to get lucky and hide out among the Ravens for a while, if he could get there.  
Tiki and her children would go to Goldoa, the land of dragons, in the hopes of meeting their Tellius kin.  
William was going southwards, towards Phoenicis, though he expected to stop around the south edge of Begnion rather than actually get to the Hawk country.  
Elwyn and Luna were heading for Gallia, to join one of the small Beorc villages that resided there.  
As for the nobles... Elice Caeda decided to send Marth to Daein with Kester as bodyguard. She would set out to cross the mountains into Begnion with Dustin, in the hopes that she would distract Dark Link's attention by passing so close to him. They would travel with Deirdre, then split up, Elice Caeda and Dustin going south around Graan to Sienne while Deirdre skirted north past the desert and towards Daein. Roy decided to stay in Crimea, under Queen Elincia's protection. How he planned to explain everybody else disappearing, he didn't know.  
They wrote it all down, drew out their routes, and memorized them. Then Elice Caeda ripped the map to pieces, so no one would discover their destinations. "We'll make preparations to leave in secret." the princess announced. "Be ready to go in two days. Pack only what you need, and don't steal anything. Now go to your rooms, and rest; and let no one else know of what has been said here tonight, lest the Shadow's spies learn of our plans."  
The Altean group dissipated, leaving for their various rooms. Behind a tree, not so far away, Soren closed his eyes and shook his head slightly in disbelief. He'd heard the whole thing. _Do they fear this Shadow so much that they would flee from him?_ he wondered. _Or are they simply overly paranoid? Destruction of one's home can do that to a person. And there is no denying the King's power, if what they say is true..._  
He wondered if he should tell anyone about it. He decided not to. _This is the path they've chosen. I'll let them follow along it, for now..._

"_What_?" Marth asked incredulously when Elice Caeda told him.  
"You're going to Daein." she repeated. "We voted. Majority decision. We're splitting up."  
"Why?"  
"The Shadow found us, Marth. We have to leave, before he tries to kill us—or kidnap you and steal your mark, and inflict even more damage on us."  
Marth clenched his right fist, then winced. The cuts he'd inflicted on the back still stung, as he'd refused to allow Luna to heal them. "Can't we trust in Queen Elincia's protection?" he asked.  
"I don't trust that she won't just hand us over without our consent." Elice Caeda said bluntly. "We can't take the chance."  
"But... why do we have to run again?" Marth asked tiredly. "We're always running... shouldn't we just stand and fight?"  
"That isn't an option, and you know it, brother." she said firmly.  
"What about you and Roy?"  
"I'm going to Begnion. He's staying here."  
"If we're running from the Shadow, then why is he staying here?"  
"It was his own decision."  
"Then let me make mine. I want to stay in Crimea."  
Elice Caeda frowned. "Is this about the Queen?"  
Marth shook his head. "No... but Daein just freed itself from Begnion occupation, so I'm told. Would it really be wise—"  
"We don't have the leniency to travel wherever we wish to, Marth." Elice Caeda said. "And besides, the whole point of this is to get you _away_ from the Shadow, not everybody else split up while you remain in danger!" He started to speak again, but she held up a finger to shush him. "It's for the best, Marth." she said soothingly. "You'll be safer in Daein than you will here."  
"Best for me, or best for Altea?" Marth asked flatly.  
"For both, my brother." she replied, her eyes flashing. "You _are_ Altea now."  
"Am I?" he challenged. "I thought Altea was dead." Then he turned and left her room.

_"I don't usually take a job whilst in the middle of another."  
_ _"I believe the pay is worth it, Assassin."_  
_"You will speak of this to no one."  
_ _"Agreed. You have the Pact?"  
_ _"My fee."_  
_"One hundred thousand gold, as promised."  
_ _"..." The assassin was gone.  
_ _The shadow smiles. "A lot of money for a piece of paper...But it will be worth it. Come, Shard. Courage is still missing, and I intend to find it."_


	5. IV

**~Chapter Four**

_Rafiel, eldest prince of the heron clan, returns in the company of the wolf queen, Nailah, and the mage Tormod to tell a dire tale. The shocking story he relates ignites a terrible fury in the hearts of the laguz.  
_ _The assassination of the previous Begnion apostle sparked the massacre of the heron clan, as well as the burning of their home, the Serenes Forest. That murder and the resulting catastrophes were long thought to be the work of Daein's former ruler, the Mad King, Ashnard. Now, however, Prince Rafiel, a survivor of the massacre, reveals that those directly responsible...were none other than the senators of Begnion.  
Upon hearing this tale, the hawk king, Tibarn, is consumed with an unspeakable rage. He shares this information with the raven king, Naesala, and the Beast king, Caineghis, and they form a Laguz Alliance. Together with the heron royal family, they send messengers to the leadership of Begnion, demanding an explanation from the senators.  
_ _Begnion rebuffs their requests, however, denying any wrongdoing and refusing to investigate Rafiel's claims. As if to emphasize their decision to silence the laguz inquiries, the Empire goes so far as to murder an Alliance messenger. This callous act of arrogant defiance pushes the alliance into declaring war upon the Begnion Empire.  
_ _Gallia's sub-commander, Ranulf, considers the merits of attempting to simply overpower Begnion. He recognizes, however, that pitting brute force against Begnion's magic and tactical prowess will result in massive Alliance casualties. He decides to enlist the strength and knowledge of his old wartime ally, Ike, and the Greil Mercenaries.  
_ _Ike is an acquaintance of Begnion's apostle, however, and is at first reluctant to become involved in the conflict. Yet, when he considers the senators' cold-blooded murder of the alliance messenger, he can feel the anger that burns in the laguz's hearts. Determined to force the senators to answer for their crimes, he agrees to help the Laguz Alliance._

All of the Mercenaries had come along. Soren had been quickly picked up from Melior. Even Elena came along, though Ike wasn't too happy about it.  
"I would follow you even if you made me stay behind." she had declared. "And besides, I can't stay here all by myself anyway."  
Zelgius agreed with her. So Elena came. Mist and Mia were putting her through a crash course on sword fighting, as Elena said she wanted to be a Ranger, like Ike.  
Neither Elena nor her parents foresaw the consequences of her coming along. They may have forgotten it, but not all laguz were as non-prejudiced as Ranulf. Elena took the brunt of the vocal resentment. None of the lower-ranked Cats would dare go after the close and personal friend of Captain Ranulf, or his husband—but the little girl was too tempting a target.

_September 15__th__, 648._

There were three of them, all cat laguz. One boy was short, with pale blond hair and matching tail. The second boy was similar, but taller and younger. The third was a girl, and she had black-gray hair and a similarly-colored tail. All had the appearances of teens, though Elena guessed they were a lot older.  
Beorc haters and gay bashers, the lot of them.  
"Gallia doesn't need your kind here!" the taller boy sneered, pacing around her.  
"You should run back to Crimea with your human friends!" the other boy spat.  
Elena clenched her fists. "Go away!" she shouted. "Leave me alone!"  
"Or what?" the girl said nastily. "You'll hit me? Go crying to your _'parents'_?"  
"Get lost, human scum!" the younger boy yelled. "You and all the humans!"  
Elena choked down a sob. "Just—just leave me alone!" she cried, backing off a step.  
The older boy chuckled. "Don't you get it, idiot dyke?" he demanded, stepping forward until he was leering over her. "We ain't leaving until all you _humans_ are _gone!_"  
And then a flying purple-and-brown blur shot out of the nearby woods and knocked the older boy into a roll. He yelped and flailed about, pushing the thing off, and then the blur wasn't just a blur but a laguz. A cat laguz, Elena believed, but quite an unusual one. It was big, at least eight inches taller than the average Cat, and its fur was a light shade of purple, though the upper half was patched with dark brown fur and the whole thing was run through with stripes—like a Tiger. It leapt in front of Elena and snarled, revealing three-inch-long fangs—also like a Tiger. _Quite unusual,_ Elena thought blankly.  
"Dammit!" the boy spat, rolling to his feet. "What is _she_ doing here?"  
A moment later Elena's mysterious savior reverted. It was the first time Elena had seen a laguz Revert up close, and it was startling. Light purple fur turned into pale skin. The dark brown patches slowly morphed into long, tangled hair that fell to the chest. Cat features changed in a flood of lavender light to more human features, the Cat shrank and twisted, and then when it stood upright it was in Reverted form, and it was a girl. A short, moderately pretty girl, appearing sixteen years old or younger, and Elena stared at her in awe. "Mauren! Angus! Jaycee!" the laguz shouted, assuming a fighter's stance in front of Elena. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"  
"Damn you, Ducessa!" the older boy called. "This isn't your affair!"  
"I am your lieutenant." she snapped. "You all wanted me in that position, _including you,_ Angus, so you'd better start by explaining exactly _what_ you think you're doing!"  
"Darkie!" the younger boy—Mauren—said pleadingly. "W-we were just foolin' around! Din't mean no harm, honest!"  
"I saw the whole thing." Elena's savior—Darkie, or was it Ducessa?—said. "No harm!? That's a lame excuse if ever I've heard one."  
"Come on, Darkie." the other girl, Jaycee, urged. "You don't like Beorc either. A-and her parents are—"  
"The only thing I see right now," Darkie retorted, "is your _complete_ and total _idiocy!_ How dare you attack a little girl?! I'm ashamed to call you my soldiers!" Elena was awestruck.  
"Get out of our way, Ducessa." Angus spat.  
"Try and make me." she challenged.  
Angus growled. Mauren was sweating heavily. "C-come on, Angus, let's just go." he said worriedly.  
"I won't forget this," the older boy snarled.  
"Truly, you have a fine memory when it comes to grudges." Darkie replied sarcastically. "Now run, kitties. Scat!"  
The two boys spun and dashed into the woods. Jaycee shot a final glare at the two girls, then ran after the others.  
Darkie let out a long breath and straightened, before turning to the young girl. "Are you all right?"  
Elena, without the pressing issue of the other laguz, finally got a chance to look Darkie over. She was about five foot two, and was wearing a tight-fitting knee-length sleeveless black tunic that accentuated her slender curves, as well as long fingerless black gloves that came up past her elbows. She also wore loose violet sweats and black boots that came almost to her knees. She also wore a golden locket with a rose on it on a leather cord around her neck, and two symmetrical light purple markings cut across her gleaming turquoise eyes. She was quite unique, compared to most Cats Elena had seen.  
"I-I'm all r-right." the young girl stuttered.  
"Your name is Elena, right?" Darkie asked. "Where are your parents?"  
"T-they're out on a mission." she replied. "B-but they m-might be back b-by now."  
"All right, come on. I'll drop you off with the Mercenaries." She offered a hand.  
Elena took it. "Y-you're name's Darkie?" she asked.  
The laguz smiled. "Actually, it's Ducessa. But Darkie's my nickname. Call me that."  
"Darkie. A-all right."

Ike was sitting on a tree stump, tapping his foot and frowning worriedly. "Where is she?"  
"Calm down." Zelgius said soothingly. "She'll be back soon..."  
"She's been missing for hours!" Ike said, on the verge of panicking. "What if someone kidnapped her?!"  
"Ike... no one would kidnap her... just calm down..." Ike stood up and started pacing worriedly.  
"He's like a doting mother, isn't he?" Gatrie commented offhandedly.  
Shinon shrugged. "I suppose you could think of it like that..."  
"Dad!" a familiar voice called.  
Ike started abruptly and turned just in time to catch his daughter. "Elena!" he cried, hugging her. "Where have you been?"  
"Lost in the woods." came a blunt reply from a different voice.  
Ike looked up to see a cat laguz standing nearby, her dark hair falling across her face. "She was the victim of a few Beorc-hating gay bashers." the Cat said. "I'm sorry about them."  
"And you are?" Zelgius asked.  
"Ducessa." she replied. "I prefer Darkie."  
"She's amazing, Dad!" Elena said excitedly. "She came flying out of the woods, and she tackled the mean older boy, and she has fangs and she's really big for a Cat and—"  
"Whoa, a little at a time." Ike said quickly. He glanced up at Ducessa. "Thanks for finding her."  
"No problem." she replied. "They were my men, anyway. It was only my duty to discipline them. See you later." Elena waved, then started talking eagerly to Ike and Zelgius.  
Gatrie—who'd been staring at Ducessa the entire time—suddenly said "Ducessa. What a pretty name... du-sheh-sa. Ahh..."  
Shinon gave him a funny look, then did a facepalm. "Ugh! Don't tell me you're chasing after laguz now! She's not even that pretty!"  
"Seriously, Shinon! Weren't you _looking_ at her? She's like a—a—a brilliant—she's pretty! Interesting! Er—pretty interesting! This is _destiny_, Shinon. I can feel it! I'm _right_ this time!"  
Shinon rolled his eyes. "Gatrie, I swear you would hit on a tree if I dressed it in a skirt. Tell me I'm wrong!"

_September 24__th__, 648._

By the time they heard of Dark Link, they were already almost to the Ribahn River. A small squad of cat laguz had recently been left behind as a rear scout. Ducessa's squad. When they returned to the rest of the Gallian army, she had some disturbing news for the Greil Mercenaries.  
"Crimea is at war," she announced to the Mercenaries, a few hours after returning.  
There was a sharp intake of breath throughout the tent. "Wait—_what?"_ Ike demanded, hardly believing what he had just heard.  
"I'll only say it once," Ducessa said firmly. "A mysterious stranger showed up in Crimea, with utterly black skin and a red-black dragon as his mount, two months ago. He calls himself Dark Link, King of Hyrule, and I believe he requested that Queen Elincia hand over the Altean refugees. She refused, and he threatened with violence. She still refused. Then—to top it all off—most of the Altean refugees disappeared... sneaked away in the night, a few days after Dark Link's request. He accused her of hiding them. She claims not to know where they went. Some nasty words were exchanged. The war became a formal announcement a week ago, but as far as I know, Dark Link doesn't even have an army."  
"Where did this 'Dark Link' come from?" Soren questioned.  
The Cat shrugged. "I don't know."  
"Are you certain of this?" Zelgius asked.  
She nodded. "Positive. I spoke with a patrol from Melior—one of Lady Marcia's friends, Sharon. I trust her."  
"But... it..." Ike mumbled under his breath.  
"Thanks, Darkie." Elena said, smiling faintly. "For telling us, I mean."  
"You're welcome." she replied, before turning and exiting the tent.  
Gatrie stared at her as she left. "She's soooo hot!" he said, a glazed look in his eyes.  
Shinon whacked him with his bow. "Didn't you hear what she said?" he demanded. "Crimea is at war now!"  
"So? She's pretty. ...Ow!"  
Elena looked concerned. "Will we be able to get home afterwards, if there's a war in Crimea?" she asked.  
"I don't know, El." Ike replied worriedly.  
Zelgius put an arm around Ike's shoulders. "Don't say that." he murmured. "We'll get home, sure enough." Ike smiled wearily.

Ducessa bumped into Lyre on the way out. "Oh. Hello, Darkie." Lyre said absently. "Have you seen Ranulf?"  
The Cat just looked at her. Lyre laughed after a moment. "Oh. Right. You haven't even met him yet..."  
"I think we both know that by now, Lyre." Ducessa said firmly. "Do you need something, or can I leave?"  
"Go on." Ducessa walked off.  
Five minutes later Ranulf jogged up to Lyre. "Hey, Lyre. Who was that?" he asked.  
Lyre shrugged. "Just one of the soldiers."  
He frowned. "I don't recall seeing her before..."  
The girl laughed. "That's ironic. She's been in the army longer than you."  
Ranulf started. _"What?_ And she isn't a commander or anything? Is she... what, a bad fighter, or something?"  
Lyre shrugged. "Not from what Lethe tells me. She just refuses to accept notice. Too shy or something."  
He looked off in the direction Ducessa had gone. "Hmm... I should talk to her sometime... What's her name?"  
Lyre's warning bells went off. "Why does it matter?"  
"Just curious."  
_Competition!_ a little voice said in Lyre's head. "I dunno. I never got her name." Lyre said cautiously.  
"Pity." Ranulf wandered off.  
Lethe wandered over to join her sister. "What was that all about?"  
"Keep Ducessa away from the Captain..." Lyre replied. Lethe just gave her a funny look.

_"Where did you get that?!"  
_ _"That is not important, Senator. What is important, is what it means to you."  
_ _"You stole it from us...!"  
_ _"A minor inconvenience. I need them, and so do you. Perhaps we may arrange something."_  
_"You would have the Senate speak and bargain with thieves!?"  
_ _"Hah. Now you are a hypocrite, Valtome..."_


	6. V

**~Chapter Five**

_September 25__th__, 648._

Despite Tibarn and Naesala's best efforts, the Begnion Central Army managed to arrive at the river in time to prevent the Gallian forces from crossing. At that point, the Bird tribes joined up with Gallia, and after Soren laid out a plan, they just had to wait for the right time to attack.  
Then it came. It was the day of the crossing. The Begnion Central Army was being led by a young General named Levail, while Skrimir, Tibarn, and Naesala were the commanders of the Laguz Alliance.  
Lethe looked into the fog. About a hundred yards away, she knew, the Central Army lay in wait. "Mordecai! Kehzda! Ducessa!"  
Her three top squad commanders moved up to join her. "Mordecai, you and I will take the middle. Kehzda, you're on the left. Ducessa, right." she ordered. "Make sure you're all ready to shift." They nodded and moved off to their positions.  
Lethe glanced back and saw a group of Ravens fly overhead. "All right, cats! Let's go!" she called, before flexing her arms and calling on her innate powers. A wash of power flooded over her; within seconds she had shifted into her beautiful orange cat form, and she bounded forward, leading the others on.  
She heard a roar—Mordecai, transforming. Then a howl—that would be Kehzda.  
And a howl, twisted with a faint roar—a tense and unnatural cry. Her junior lieutenant. Ducessa.  
The fog cleared ahead of her, and Lethe saw her first Begnion soldier. She tensed and sprung. The soldier went down with a yelp, and within moments she was surrounded by enemies and allies alike. Somehow she found herself next to Mordecai, and the two of them plowed into the Begnions. She heard the Hawks and Ravens overhead, loud splashing, and the sounds of combat. The battle had begun.

Soren was not happy. Somewhere out there, Ike and Zelgius were leading the rest of the Greil Mercenaries in surprise assault on the senator's camp, as he had planned.  
The chosen birds had only been able to carry a certain amount of people, though, and now Soren was left behind to take care of Elena. Not as he'd planned.  
"Do you think Darkie will be all right?" she asked worriedly. She was sitting next to him and fiddling with his hair, as she usually did when she was nervous.  
He pushed her hands away from his hair again. "I'm sure she'll be fine." he said wearily. "According to you, she knows how to take care of herself."  
"Yeah, but that was against other laguz, not Begnion!" she fretted.  
"You make it sound like she'll be fighting the entire Central Army." he commented wryly.  
"No, no, not that. Ranulf'll be there too! I hope." She fretted, and fidgeted.  
She ruined his hair.  
_Hurry up, Ike,_ Soren thought as Elena shakily tried to untie the knots she'd made in his black-green locks. _My—I can't take much more of this._

Ranulf felt the familiar pains of being shifted for too long coming in again. His left front paw stiffened, and he nearly stumbled. He quickly ripped down another Begnion soldier, and then reverted before his limbs seized up again, ducking behind a fallen log and pulling out his bottle of Olivi Grass from his bag. He tried to drink from it, but it was out. He stared at the bottle incredulously and shook it, hoping beyond hope that there would be something left. _Oh, I don't believe this,_ he cursed mentally. _I still had two uses!  
_ Someone shouted, and he looked up and narrowly dodged a Begnion arrow. His back ached and he'd taken a hit to the arm a while back. Another archer fired and this time he didn't dodge in time. His leg got hit and he stumbled.  
A Begnion Swordmaster caught sight of him and decided he would be easy prey. He dashed forward and swung hard and fast, and it was all Ranulf could do to dodge him. The cat laguz stumbled backwards, desperately searching for his Vulnerary, but that was gone too. _Dammit!  
_ The Swordmaster lunged forward again, and Ranulf tripped and sprawled in the shallow, muddy water. He half crawled, half rolled away from another swing, but then his dodging ability was severely limited; the Swordmaster stepped on his tail, hard. He yelped in pain and twisted, but the Begnion wasn't about to let him go.  
Then a dark shape flew out of the fog and crashed into the Swordmaster, sending him flying into the mud and releasing Ranulf's tail. The Cat quickly stood up to assess the new arrival. The attacker straightened and Ranulf realized it was a laguz—a Cat, though quite larger than the average. Light purple, with dark brown patches up around the shoulders and neck. She was probably the strangest cat laguz Ranulf had ever seen.  
The Swordmaster got up and charged the Cat with a yell of fury. She leaped to the side and the Swordmaster nearly ran into Ranulf, who instinctively punched the man in the face. He yelped and jumped back, then got tackled by the shifted Cat. She hissed, revealing three-inch-long fangs, and bit his shoulder, prompting a painful shout. Then she ripped her head back to tear the wound open and propelled herself off his chest, flipping over to land in front of Ranulf and killing the man in the same action.  
Ranulf blinked. "Whoa!"  
The Cat paused a moment, then reverted in the same familiar flood of light. Ranulf blinked again when he saw her five foot two, slender and brown-haired Reverted form—so much unlike her Shifted persona. "Here." she said, tossing him a Vulnerary she produced from her belt. He caught it, and briefly saw her bloodstained teeth, causing him to wince.  
She darted over to the fallen Swordmaster and gave him a quick search, which resulted in finding a bottle of Olivi Grass. She drank some of it, then tossed it to Ranulf. He, who'd just finished drinking the Vulnerary, caught it and said "I don't think I've seen you before. What's your name?"  
"Ducessa." she replied. "And—" Her eyes suddenly widened. "Wait a minute. Captain Ranulf?"  
"Yeah." he replied, taking a good swallow of the Olivi Grass. "You—were you talking to Lyre yesterday, outside of the Greil Mercenaries' tent?"  
She nodded, suddenly embarrassed. "Yes... but this isn't exactly the time! Can we talk about this later?" she asked, slogging through the mud back towards the shore.  
"One minute. How long have you been in the Gallian army?" he asked, jogging to catch up.  
"Well... over fifty years." she admitted.  
"Over—? Seriously?" She nodded. "But you don't even look like an adult Beorc!"  
She shrugged. "I've been told I look young. I don't know why. Maybe it's my blood."  
That brought her bloodstained teeth to mind, which made Ranulf wince. "What do you mean?"  
"My mother was a Cat, but my father was a Tiger." she replied, reaching the bank and pausing for a moment to catch her breath. "That's why I look like..." She gestured at herself.  
"Wow. I've never met anyone like that before..." he said, surprise edged in his voice.  
Ducessa glanced over at the battle, which continued not far away. "I'd better go find Commander Lethe." she said.  
"I don't think she needs you yet," Ranulf found himself saying. "Come with me. I'd like to see you fight some more. And after all—I could use a little help with officer-hunting."  
She smiled nervously and nodded. Then she spat to the side. Some of the blood was gone now.  
They shifted in a flood of light and dashed off towards the fray.

In the end, the Laguz Alliance won when Levail and many of the forces were forced to fall back and assist the panicking senators. Ike and the Mercenaries were picked up by the Birds, and brought back to camp.  
"Hello, Elena." Zelgius said warmly as the girl hugged him.  
"Father!" she said cheerily, ignoring the fact that he had blood and ashy grime all over him. "Things were pretty boring back here. How'd the battle go?"  
"It went rather well. None of the Mercenaries were seriously injured."  
"Good!" She smiled fondly.  
Soren came out of his tent with his hair wet, tangled, and missing several large chunks. He held a knife in his hand. "I swear to Ashera, if I ever have to spend a battle back alone with her again, I will kill myself." he said to Ike rather pleasantly, before stomping off. Ike just rolled his eyes.

"How many did we lose?" Lethe asked Mordecai.  
"Twenty-four under your command." he replied. "We were lucky. Many others died."  
"Where's Kehzda and Ducessa?"  
Mordecai looked about. "I have not seen Darkie since the start of the fighting. Kehzda is at the healer's tent."  
Lethe sighed. "Darkie... where is that cat...?"  
"Lethe!" someone shouted.  
The girl spun about to see her sister running up, looking worried. "Lyre! What's wrong?"  
"Have you seen Ranulf?" Lyre panted. "I haven't seen him!"  
Lethe frowned. "No. Mordecai?"  
He shook his head. "I have not seen him either."  
"Have you asked Commander Ike?" Lethe questioned, turning back to Lyre.  
"No, but—"  
"Lethe!"  
All three of them turned and saw Ducessa, bloody and battered, carrying something—or someone—in a princess-lift. "Could you help me out?" she called.  
They ran forward, and Lethe realized with a start that the person Ducessa was carrying was actually Ranulf. He was unconscious and pale, and the girl was obviously having a hard time carrying him.  
Lyre practically ripped Ranulf out of Ducessa's arms. "What happened?" she demanded.  
"Our Vulneraries ran out. Then we got attacked by a fire mage." the girl rasped. She turned and spat out a mouthful of blood. "He got lucky."  
Mordecai picked Ranulf up easily. He moaned and mumbled nonsense words in a half-doze. "Let us find a healer quickly." the Tiger said.  
Lyre nodded emphatically. "Hurry up!" She ran off, presumably to find a healer, and Mordecai started after her.  
Ducessa stumbled, and Lethe saw a knife wound on her leg. Quickly the Cat caught her. "Careful. You might tear that open wider." She put an arm around Ducessa and pulled her up.  
The girl leaned heavily against Lethe. "Ahh... I suppose carrying Ranulf the whole way through the shallows and the abandoned battlefield wasn't the best idea." she mumbled.  
Lethe laughed. "Come on. You need healing too, Darkie."  
The other laguz laughed as well. "Glad to see... you finally remembered my name." Then she fainted.

_"You can't be serious."  
"I am perfectly serious."  
_ _"You would have me abandon them in the middle of a war? To chase down shadows and fight against friends?"_  
_"I most certainly would."  
_ _"I'm not going to—"  
__"This pact says otherwise."_


	7. VI

**~Chapter Six**

Ike overslept the next morning, even missing his family's and the Mercenaries' individual wake-up calls. He finally staggered out of bed to have Zelgius inform him that he was late to the next meeting and that he would have to hurry. So Ike hastily threw on his clothes, grabbed a bit of bread to satiate his stomach, and raced out the door.

Soren looked up as Ike stumbled in in a rush. "Ah. You're finally awake." he said sarcastically.

Ike nearly tripped and hurriedly joined Soren. "Sorry for the delay." he said apologetically.

"You aren't the only one who's late." Tibarn said grumpily. "Where is that damn raven?"

Skrimir tapped his foot impatiently, and Ike realized that Ranulf was missing as well. "Where's Ranulf?" he asked.

"I'm here, I'm here!" the Cat suddenly said as he dashed in the tent, nearly crashing into the table. "Sorry I'm late!"

"It's about time!" Skrimir almost roared. "Where have you been?"

"Sorry, sorry! I-I was talking to s-someone." Ranulf stammered slightly. He absently rubbed his leg, which Ike noticed was bandaged. _Wonder what happened,_ he thought.

"Who was so _important_ as to delay the meeting? I've been waiting here for an hour!" Skrimir shouted.

There was a low mumble outside. Ranulf frowned and said "One second," then darted outside again. There was a hurried conversation in low voices, and then Ranulf practically dragged a slightly alarmed and very familiar female cat laguz into the tent. "This is Ducessa. She'll be with me during the meeting today." Ranulf said, then elbowed her gently.

"Er... your Majesties...!" she said nervously, nodding in respect. "I-it's an honor...!"

Skrimir eyed Ranulf. "Who... is she exactly?" he demanded.

"I'm training her." Ranulf said defensively. "To be one of my commanders, I mean. She's already a good fighter, but she's a little shy, so I thought I'd get her a quick start with royal interaction."

"We've met." Ike said unexpectedly.

Ranulf looked at him, one eyebrow raised. "Really?"

"She saved my daughter from some Beorc-haters." Ike said bluntly. "Put them in their place, apparently. Elena speaks quite highly of her. Good cat."

Ducessa turned three shades of red and couldn't speak. Ranulf grinned and nudged her. "See? You've already made a good impression on Commander Ike! That's progress!"

"Whatever. Can we get on with the meeting?" Skrimir said impatiently.

"We're still waiting for Naesala." Tibarn said as Ranulf took his place by Skrimir, Ducessa right beside him. "If he would just show up—"

Then the raven king himself entered the tent. He looked tired and not at all his usual, sly self. His right forearm was bandaged—and the bandage was red with blood. "Finally!" Skrimir said as he entered. "_Now_ can we—"

"I'm sorry." Naesala said abruptly.

Tibarn frowned. "What?"

"I'm sorry." Naesala repeated. "I'm... Kilvas is pulling out."

There was a sharp intake of breath around the tent. _"What?"_ Tibarn demanded. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"We're going... back to Kilvas."

Skrimir was fuming. Ducessa asked Ranulf something quietly, and he replied equally quietly.

"If you'll excuse me... I have to order my troops." Naesala said darkly. Then he spun and left the room.

"Wait! Damn you, Naesala..." Tibarn muttered. Then he ran out of the tent, after the Raven. Soren started mumbling to himself, and Ducessa and Ranulf were talking worriedly. Ike, impulsively, moved next to the door and listened.

"Naesala! What are you doing?" Tibarn shouted at him.

"I can't explain it to you." Naesala insisted. "I have my reasons, but I can't tell you... for the same reasons."

"That's a pretty lame excuse!"

Ike glanced around the corner and saw Tibarn holding Naesala's arm tightly, preventing the Raven from going anywhere. The Hawk appeared to be on the verge of either storming off or screaming, while Naesala had a deep and forlorn regret in his eyes.

"Believe what you will, Tibarn, but it doesn't change my response." Naesala said.

Tibarn just continued his line of thought. "Well, then what is it? Did Begnion pay you off, huh? Going for the highest bidder again? Like when you sold Reyson!?"

"Dammit, Tibarn! You _always_ have to bring that up!" Naesala snarled through clenched teeth. He tried to pull his arm out of Tibarn's grasp, but the Hawk's grip was like iron. "I'm not getting paid for what I'm doing, I'll tell you that much!"

"Then why?" Tibarn yelled.

"Because I have no Goddamn choice!" Naesala screamed in angry frustration. Then, with a furious pull, he yanked his arm out of Tibarn's hand, though the bandage came off in it. Ike saw then that it had been covering a long slice down Naesala's arm, all the way to the elbow, running straight down the wrist vein—almost as if he'd tried to kill himself. "I'm sorry!" Then he turned and ran about fifty feet before flying in the air and transforming.

Tibarn halfheartedly ran after him, but then stopped and stormed back. Ike quickly returned to his spot before the angry King Phoenicis entered.

"He's not coming back?" Ranulf asked.

"No." Tibarn spat.

"This may alter my plans slightly..." Soren murmured.

"All right, Soren." Ike said. "Let's hear it."

So, ignoring the fuming laguz royals and Ducessa's quiet question to Ranulf every now and then, Soren laid out his plan.

Levail was utterly exhausted. The battle at the river had taken its toll on him, and now he seriously just wanted to get some rest before the next imminent clash, but this idiotic Senator refused to give him any time.

"And you will not retreat any more, understand?" Valtome said decisively. "Our goal is to exterminate the sub-humans, not flee from them!"

"I understand, my lord." Levail said wearily. "I will do as you command."

"And then, of course," the Senator continued, turning around to see the dark visitor that had arrived shortly before him, "once the sub-humans are dead, Begnion will be all too glad to assist you in capturing the Altean prince from Crimea."

"The Senate is too kind." the dark boy said.

"Nonsense! That infuriating little queen has been blocking the sub-humans for too long now... Uwee hee hee! It'll be a pleasure to get rid of her... hee!"

"I look forward to the day. If you would excuse me, I must depart to oversee the pre-arrival of my army." the boy said.

"Of course, of course, Your Majesty."

The King of Hyrule nodded. Then he spun, the cape sweeping out behind him, and strode out the door. A moment later a loud roar was heard, and then the familiar heavy wingbeats as the King departed on his magnificent dragon.

_I wish I could get out of here that easy,_ Levail thought wryly. Instead, he was stuck with the Senator... him, and his creepy laugh. _Damn._

Ranulf and Ducessa were with Ranulf's forces, near Soze Pass. Lyre ran to join them. "Hey, Captain! The hawk king's decoy attack got the Begnion forces to move out!"

"Good." Ranulf said. "Our unit will hit them from the north, Ike from the south, and Skrimir from the west. I'm impressed. If everything goes according to plan, Soren will have delivered another easy victory."

Suddenly, Kyza ran down the cliff path, out of breath. "Captain! We appear to have a situation!" he said quickly. "General Skrimir's western forces are charging down the cliff!"

"What?!" Ranulf demanded in alarm. "I told him to keep his men under control at all costs!"

"Apparently, an enemy commander challenged General Skrimir to a duel. He accepted, of course. He always was an impatient one." Kyza told him. "The challenger was a young golden-haired Beorc, with purplish-red armor."

"That must be Levail." Ducessa commented.

"No, no, no!" Ranulf said angrily. "Skrimir can't win. Even if he does, he'll be slaughtered by the Central Army! Send a message to Tibarn and Ike. Tell them I'm going to save Skrimir. We can't let him do this!"

Ranulf was right. Skrimir was a good fighter, but Levail was no easy prey. He was mobile enough to dodge the lumbering Lion and strong enough to wound. But he was weakening, and the Lion could sense his enemy's strength dwindling.

The Wishblade was a blur as Levail lunged in again, stabbing the lance into Skrimir's thick hide. Blood spurted, and the Lion roared in fury, leaping at the Sentinel. Levail barely moved fast enough to avoid getting crushed, but as it was, Skrimir tore a nasty wound into his side. He gasped in agony and leapt back again, stumbling to keep his balance.

The Lion smelled blood and moved in for the kill.

A flying black blur stopped him in his tracks. Skrimir barely had time to register something was happening before he was hit.

Ranulf, Ike, Ducessa, and Zelgius came up the cliff just in time to see a huge raven send Skrimir flying into the cliff wall. There was a snapping sound and a roar of pain, and then the Lion fell limply to the ground, blood pooling around him. "Skrimir!" Ranulf shouted, starting to run forward, but Ike stopped him.

"By the Goddess..." Ducessa said.

The raven king reverted and landed beside Levail. "Are you alive?" he asked the Sentinel with little real concern.

Levail nodded. "Yes..."

"Naesala!" Ike called. "What the hell are you doing here?"

The King turned to look at Ike and nodded sadly. "See if you can guess, Beorc." he said.

"You've sided with Begnion." Zelgius said bitterly. "Kilvas... traitor."

Levail finally turned to look at them. His eyes widened in shock and he stumbled again. "G-General Zelgius!" he said in awe. "Y-you're—"

The former Begnion general, his sword bloodied and thoroughly soaked with sweat from the long battle and climb, stared down the young sentinel. "Not a general any longer." he said firmly.

Levail stuttered, at a loss for words, so Naesala kicked him. "You know why you're here." he hissed. "Get on with it."

Levail looked at Zelgius again—once his hero and idol, and now his enemy—then limped to the cliff edge and looked down at the armies. "Heed my words, Laguz Alliance!" he shouted. "I am Levail, general of the Begnion Central Army! Your general has fallen to my blade in—in single combat! My army does not wish to continue this senseless bloodshed. Leave this place immediately! Soldiers of Begnion! I forbid you to attack the fleeing laguz soldiers! This fight is finished!"

The laguz fell into an uproar. Most of them didn't seem to believe it. Ike couldn't hear what they were saying, but most of them looked like they were about to attack.

"Stop!" Ranulf shouted, breaking off from Ike and running to the edge. "We will fall back! Brothers, listen to me! I swear upon my life that I'll take Skrimir back with us! Fall back!"

"Levail," Naesala said pleasantly, "why don't you go running back to your precious Senator? I have other matters to attend to."

Levail nodded shakily and backed off.

Ranulf spun on the Raven. "Naesala, you bastard!" he shouted. "How could you!? You—you betrayed us again! Betrayed Tibarn, t-the Herons! Skrimir—!"

Naesala just looked at him sadly. "He's not dead. Not yet." he said darkly. Then he turned and ran to the edge, leaping off and Shifting in mid-fall. A moment later, the king of Kilvas flew away. Levail shot one last hurt glance at Zelgius, then left—presumably to collect his troops and return to base camp.

Zelgius helped Ranulf carry Skrimir back down, with Ike and Ducessa bringing up the rear.

Ranulf, sitting next to the unconscious Skrimir, the Cat in a half-doze from exhaustion and blood loss from a lance wound gained several hours ago in the battle, was startled awake by a hand on his shoulder. "Are you all right?" Ducessa asked.

Ranulf smiled wearily. "Y-yes, Ducessa... I-I'm fine."

"I've told you before, Captain, my name is Darkie." she corrected.

"Meh... your nickname, anyway..."

"You've been here for hours." the girl stated, crossing her arms.

"I have...?" Ranulf shrugged. "I lost track of the time..."

"Come on." Ducessa said, tugging his arm. "You need your rest too."

"N-no..." Ranulf moaned slightly, allowing himself to be pulled upright. "I'm fine, really..."

"You're tired, you're starved, and you're injured. "Ducessa said firmly. "I know the look. Don't argue with me—I'm bigger than you when transformed."

Ranulf only resisted for a few more seconds before allowing the girl to drag him out of Skrimir's tent. She wrapped an arm around him and supported him all the way back to his tent, far down the row.

She set him down on his blanket and rooted around in his things until she found a bandage. He lay back lazily on his bed, barely awake, as she bandaged off the lance wound in his leg. When she'd finished, she left for a few minutes, then came back with some bread. "This out to satiate you till morning." she said, tossing it to him.

He devoured it readily, then fell back again, not even brushing the crumbs off. Ducessa rolled her eyes. "You really are too lazy. Even for a Cat." she said.

"Hmmhuhh?" he mumbled. "I'm not lazy... jus' tired..."

The girl rolled her eyes again and laughed slightly, sitting down next to him and brushing the breadcrumbs off. "Get some sleep. We've all had a rough day." she said soothingly.

He mumbled again and caught her hand. "I can't sleep..." he said.

She shook her head and sighed. "If you want a lullaby, I can't sing." she said flatly.

"Just... stay a while, Darkie?"

She sighed again. "Oh, all right." She crossed her legs under her and held his hand, her other hand stroking him gently on the head in that manner that all cats love.

He smiled and closed his eyes, and when he tried to sit up she sat on his legs and lay back on his chest to hold him down. He petted her hair and toyed with her ears. She purred. They dozed off.

_"__You're one of the Alteans, aren't you?"_

_"__Why ask if you already know?"_

_"__A good question. So why are you here?"_

_"__Kilvas is always in need of... Beorc spies."_

_"__...Am I to understand that you are offering your services to me, then?"_

_"__Most certainly, Your Majesty. If you'll have me."_

_"__And what do you want in return?"_

_"__...I believe you know a certain King Hyrule? A way to keep me away from him, yet perhaps close to a certain Begnion general—that is my only request."_

_"__Ah, but I would have done that anyway, boy. Any chance to spite him, I'll take."_

_"__Hah! I agree. Damn bastard."_

_"__Then we have an accord! What's your name, boy?"_

_"__Jak. At your service."_

Needless to say, Lyre was a bit surprised when she decided to bring Ranulf his breakfast the next morning and entered his tent. She shrieked and almost dropped the food, startling them both awake. Ducessa sat up slightly and rubbed her eyes, while Ranulf just yawned and stretched. "Mornin', Lyre." he said cheerfully.

"What in the name of—?" she yelped.

"Ah, you brought breakfast." Ranulf smiled and stretched out comfortably.

Ducessa got up reluctantly and sighed. "Don't startle me like that..." she mumbled.

"What are you doing here?" Lyre yelped.

"She was helping me fall asleep last night." Ranulf said sleepily, getting up and taking the food from Lyre, sniffing. "Is this rabbit?"

"Helping you—?" Lyre glared at Ducessa murderously.

Ducessa made a face. "How could you eat a bunny?" she said accusingly.

Ranulf frowned. "Huh? Don't you eat rabbits too?"

"I _try_ not to." she said stiffly. "I'm a vegetarian."

Ranulf tried not to look shocked. "Vegetarian? How's that possible? You kill people by _biting_ them, for Ashera's sake!"

"Well..." she said defensively, "I eat meat occasionally when there's no other choice... but I really prefer not to. Seafood's nice..."

"Fish, yeah. Can't go wrong there." Ranulf sniffed the food again and took a bite. "You want some?" he asked through a mouthful.

She took a fish from the tray.(Ranulf always got the best food, when it was available. Not that he necessarily wanted it.) "Can I have this?"

He shrugged. "Go 'head."

She ate it in three bites and grinned.

Lyre's eyes were darting from Ranulf to Ducessa and back again. "What were you two doing last night?" she demanded.

Ranulf shrugged. "Don' see why it matters to you so much." he said, swallowing the mouthful. "What do you think we were doing, anyway? Cracking jokes about you?"

"Oh, Goddess help me!" Lyre said angrily. "How can you be so handsome and still so... so _clueless!_" She spun on her heel and stormed out.

Ranulf frowned. "What was that about?"

Ducessa tried not to smile. "Er... well, I've been sworn to secrecy, but isn't it obvious?"

Ranulf thought hard for a few minutes. Then his eyes widened. "_Oh._ Oh my."

Ducessa laughed.

_"__Well met."_

_"__I have heard of you, your Majesty. Of your... your little 'alliance' with the Senate."_

_"__Call it a... mutually beneficial arrangement."_

_"__What do you want from me?"_

_"__I have come to ask for help in something."_

_"__That's going to be fairly hard, considering my... position."_

_"__Your imprisonment makes... no difference to me. I need to know... a past acquaintance of yours."_

_"__I don't know who you're talking about."_

_"__I am sure you do. I need his armor. You know what I speak of."_

_"__...And...what would I gain from giving it to you?"_

_"__An agreement..."_


	8. VII

**~Chapter Seven**

_September 26th__, 648._

Following Skrimir's defeat, the Laguz Alliance, disheartened and tired, were forced to turn back. The Greil Mercenaries, for a brief time, were left behind in command of Seliora Castle.

Begnion wanted it back. A certain General Lombroso, disobeying the commands of General Levail, attacked the castle, thinking to overwhelm it with sheer force of numbers. Of course, they didn't count on the sheer skill of the Greil Mercenaries and their friends.

While Nephenee, Brom, and Rhys held the east wall, Mia, Rolf, Mist, and Soren held the west. The rest blocked off the front stairs and the occasional ledge where an enemy could climb up. Haar flew from wall to wall to take down those stragglers, and Reyson was going back and forth, singing his galdr almost nonstop to keep his friends moving.

Ike, down by the stairs, suddenly noticed a very peculiar thing. Most of these soldiers were dressed in the red Begnion armor, but one—a left-handed archer with blue hair, a _girl_—was wearing sparse blue armor over a black tunic. She also seemed to be trying to avoid the majority of combat, as several groups of soldiers rushed past her but she remained in the back. His mind flashed back three years, to a time when he'd noticed a certain unique purple-haired girl amongst the enemy soldiers...

That girl had been Ilyana, and what a valuable friend she'd become! He remembered her story—she'd been captured by the enemy and forced into their service. Was this girl the same way?

A group of cavalry charged him down, diverting his attention for a few minutes as he dodged around them, skillfully cutting them off their horses. When he finally looked back, he saw that someone else had noticed the strange girl as well.

Shinon didn't really care who he was killing, most of the time. These were all just faceless Begnion soldiers, after all. _Same ol', same ol',_ as he always said to himself. No challenge, really.

He was by himself now, standing above the ledge and firing down at any foolish soldier who came to try and shoot him down. Then he saw the girl.

She was so out of place, it startled him. While most of the Begnions charged violently or waited impatiently for their commander's orders, she seemed nervous and apprehensive, like a deer, poised to take flight at any second. She held a bow, and a quiver of arrows was on her back, but she never fired a shot. She even had a few good opportunities, he noticed—at one point, on the west wall, Rolf had gotten distracted and left himself vulnerable. It would have been easy enough for the girl to run up and shoot the sniper down with the longbow she carried, yet she did not. Just waited.

Shinon was intrigued. _What kind of soldier is she?_ he thought. _Either she's a coward, or she's a rookie._ Neither of those seemed right, though. Judging by the way she held herself, the way she readied her bow, she didn't have the appearance of a rookie—not a total rookie, at least. And a coward would have run a long time ago—she'd had plenty of opportunity for that as well.

So what was it? And why did he feel any different? She was just another enemy soldier... and yet he found his gaze drawn to her more often than he liked.

Shinon checked to see that no one was near enough to climb up the ledge, then he jumped down. The girl wasn't far from his position.

She was looking at something over by the east wall when she heard a bowstring pull tight. Spinning around, she brought her own bow to bear and found herself facing a tall, red/pink-haired archer, bowstring taut, an arrow ready to fire straight into her forehead. Her eyes widened, and she tried to step aside, but he followed her. She put an arrow on the bowstring and raised it to point at him, her hands slightly shaky. She fired, but he easily sidestepped the weak attack.

He still hadn't fired. He just kept the arrow trained on her head, as she looked about desperately for cover. When she tried to back away, he followed her. When she ran at him, he stepped back. They circled warily. Nobody else was around them—they were either too interested in the guards on the stairs or didn't care enough to notice.

"You don't belong here." the archer finally said.

She started, falling away from him. Her back hit stone and she realized he'd backed her into the wall.

"Who are you?" he demanded. "You ain't Begnion, that's for sure."

She nodded, swallowing audibly, and slowly began walking to the side.

He finally fired. The arrow slammed into the mortar between the stones and, amazingly, stuck there, quivering right next to her neck. "Well?" he demanded.

"I'm not Begnion." she verified. Her voice was soft and tensed.

"Then why are you here?" he asked, and fired again. The second arrow slammed into the wall on the other side of her neck.

She eyed the arrow warily. "I was traveling by when I got picked up by a patrol." she said. "They press-ganged me into fighting for them."

"Something you don't seem to have been doing." he challenged, aiming a third arrow at her head and stepping slightly closer.

"No." she said, nodding. "I don't have any wish to fight the Greil Mercenaries. I—"

She saw a flash and ducked as the third arrow hit the wall just above her head. "You have good reflexes." he said, casually spinning an arrow in his fingers.

She stepped out from the wall and pulled an arrow out of her quiver. "I don't want to fight the Mercenaries, but I will defend myself."

"Defend?" He laughed. "Girl, if I'd wanted you dead you'dve _been_ dead five minutes ago."

She conceded the point. "So why haven't you killed me?"

"You've got talent." he stated. "But you need training."

"I have training." she said defensively.

He snorted. "Obviously your trainer wasn't all that good. For one thing, you're holding the bow upside down."

She looked down at the bow and turned pink. "T-that was just because you startled me!"

"Well, that's even worse. If you flip the bow upside down every time someone startles you then you won't last long."

"Wait." She frowned. "Why are you helping me?"

He eyed her for a moment. "You have talent." he repeated. "Would be a shame to waste it." He turned and ran back to the gap in the wall he'd been guarding, climbing up. He turned around at the top and looked back at her.

She approached tentatively, standing beneath the gap. He knelt and offered her a hand. "Coming?" he asked.

"How can you trust me?" she asked. "How did you know I wouldn't shoot you in the back?"

He didn't blink. "Because you're either a fool or a coward, but you didn't shoot my apprentice in the back when you had the chance."

She reached up and took his hand, and he pulled her up beside him.

On the stairs, not so far away, Ike gaped. _What the heck just happened?_

Zelgius tapped him on the shoulder to get him back into focus on the battle.

Later that day, after Lombroso had been defeated, the Mercenaries and company went inside the castle to quickly heal before they set out to rejoin the rest of the Alliance.

Ike made his way over to Shinon, who was with that strange girl, as well as Rolf. "Who is she?" he asked bluntly.

Shinon looked at him and hid a slight grimace.

"Commander Ike?" the girl asked shyly.

Ike nodded. "Yes."

"My name's Deirdre." the girl said. "I'm... I'm on your side, I think."

"She was press-ganged into fighting for Begnion." Rolf supplied helpfully. "Shinon says she's gonna be his new apprentice, after me!"

Shinon shot him a look. "I _said_ I'd give her a few pointers."

"That's _not_ what you—" Shinon glared at him, so Rolf fell silent.

Soren came out of another room and started when he saw the girl. "Wait." he said loudly.

Ike glanced over his shoulder to look at the sage. "Soren? What is it?"

"I remember you." Soren said, walking forward quickly to join them. "You were in Melior."

"You were that Sage who came to see Princess Tiki." Deirdre said, nodding conformation. "I remember you too."

"Soren?" Ike asked again.

"You're one of the refugees." Soren stated, still addressing Deirdre. "The Altean refugees, who disappeared a few weeks ago."

Shinon looked to Deirdre. "Really?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"What are you doing in Begnion?" Soren asked.

"Well... if you know that we disappeared, you must know of... Dark Link, as well."

He nodded. "Yes, we heard of him."

"We knew him as the Shadow, before. He was the one who destroyed Akaneia. We're the only ones left... After he tracked us to Melior, we... we thought it wasn't safe there anymore, so we decided to split up, in the hopes we could throw him off Prince Marth's trail—perhaps make him give up the search, even. I was sent down to Begnion. I had hoped to sneak past the fighting and make my way further south, but... it didn't quite turn out that way."

"Where is Prince Marth?" Ike asked absently. "Certainly there aren't many places he could go without someone noticing."

She averted her eyes. "I can't say." she said firmly. "You never know who might be listening."

Soren nodded understandingly. "Well. Perhaps you'll be of some use." Then he turned and walked off.

Ike smiled faintly. "Er, that was his way of saying 'welcome to the Greil Mercenaries'."

Deirdre smiled. "Th—thanks for letting me stay. I won't be any trouble."

He nodded. Then he walked off.

She stood silently for a moment, fingering the new bow that Shinon had given her—_"You can't fight with just a longbow,"_ he'd said_. "Take this."_

_He was right,_ she thought. _My old teacher, sensei—my father—he wasn't much of an archer. He preferred the blade..._

"We have to move out soon." Shinon's voice interrupted her thoughts. "I might as well get started on you. Come on." He walked off, bow in hand, and she quickly followed him with Rolf._ At least, here I'll be safe. Sensei seems honest enough..._

_And after all, _she reasoned._Where safer to be in all Tellius than with the Greil Mercenaries?_

Unfortunately, when the Mercenaries rejoined the Laguz Alliance, they discovered that Daein was blocking the way back.

With Daein was a familiar foe.

Ducessa had fought in the battle under Lethe's command, and had barely escaped with her life, after a young Rogue nearly killed her—shortly after she'd narrowly escaped a very familiar knight, the sight of whom shocked her. She also saw the exchange between the Maiden of Dawn and Captain Ranulf—and was surprised when that same knight didn't make his appearance.

She managed to stumble back to camp with a bleeding hole in her leg, and Ranulf went ballistic when Lyre finally deigned to tell him.

"What do you mean, you _forgot!?_" the blue Cat shouted.

"I didn't think you needed to know!" Lyre said defensively.

"She's my protégé! Of _course_ I needed to know! Where is she?" he demanded angrily.

"In the healer's tent still, as far as I know." Lyre replied.

Ranulf dashed off. The orange Cat sighed. _There goes my romance..._

It didn't take long for Ranulf to find her. Lying next to several other cat laguz, her left leg heavily bandaged and bloody, she was still instantly recognizable. "Darkie!" he cried.

Her eyelids flicked open. "Captain." she said, smiling wearily. "I'd thought you wouldn't have cared."

He knelt down next to her and examined her leg. "What happened?"

"There was... a guy with a knife. Ow!" She yelped when he poked it.

He frowned worriedly as he partially unwrapped the bandage to examine the wound. "This looks bad..."

"Ouch." she said, closing her eyes. "Ah. You shouldn't worry about it..."

"Don't say that!" he said indignantly. "You're my protégé! I'm not going to lose potential by letting that get infected—which it's already on the starting of!"

"Protégé...? I've been in the army longer than you." she reminded him, sitting up on her elbows. "I've suffered through worse than this."

"I'm still a better fighter than you, Darkie." he chided.

She sighed. "Would you do me a favor?" she asked.

"Say the word."

"I need to tell Commander Ike something." she said. "It's important."  
"All righty," he said cheerfully, scooping her up in a princess-lift. "I'll take you there, and you can talk to him while Mist or Rhys fixes your leg, if either of them can be spared."

The wounded Cat that had been sitting next to Ducessa laughed wryly. "Hah! First you hang out with the dumb dyke, and now you're flirting with the Captain! Have you no shame?"

"Shut up, Angus." Ducessa snapped.

Ranulf gave the other Cat a dark look, then carried Ducessa out of the tent.

Ike and Zelgius were discussing the last battle when Ranulf swept into the tent, carrying Ducessa in that rather dramatic fashion. "Ike!" he said.

Ike looked up and frowned. "Ranulf? Darkie?"

"Commander Ike?" Ducessa asked quickly.

Ike came over as Ranulf set her down to examine her leg. "What is it?"

"I-I have to tell you something!" she said hurriedly. "The Black Knight isn't dead."

Ike's eyebrows shot up so far they looked like they were trying to escape his face, and he suddenly looked faint. "W-what?"

"The Black Knight is alive." she repeated. "He was there, with the Daein troops...!"

Ike subtly shot a glance at Zelgius. His husband looked lost and confused. "I..." he murmured.

"Were you mistaken?" Ranulf asked, slightly shaken.

She shook her head emphatically. "I've seen him before. I'd recognize that armor anywhere."

Ike stood up, slightly dazed, and walked out of the tent. Zelgius followed him.

"Was it...?" Ike asked quietly when his husband joined him.

"No." Zelgius whispered back. "No, of course not...! I was with you the entire time. It... this is someone else..."

After Mist had healed Ducessa's leg somewhat, Ranulf carried her to his tent. "Mist said you shouldn't walk on that for a day or two." he commented.

The girl rubbed the spot and winced. "Well, I should still report to Commander Lethe. I think I forgot."

"You think?" Ranulf asked.

She shrugged regretfully. "I don't have a very good memory."

"And yet you remembered the Black Knight's armor."

"You don't forget something like that." She sighed and looked up at the roof of the tent. "I saw him once in the Mad King's War. Best fighter I've ever seen, other than maybe Commander Ike or Zelgius. I lost count of how many he killed... I only survived because I didn't go near him."

Ranulf frowned slightly. "Right. About Zelgius..."

She looked back at him. "What?"

"Well, I fought the Black Knight once. And I've been watching Zelgius fight. Doesn't it strike you that... their fighting style is a bit similar?"

Ducessa nodded emphatically. "I noticed too. In fact..."

"What?"

"I've been thinking about the Black Knight, and I realized something. His scent was very close to Zelgius'. Almost the same, in fact."

Ranulf nodded agreement. "Yeah! I noticed that too."

They paused. "Wait. You said 'was'." Ranulf suddenly realized.

"Yes." She frowned. "It's strange, but when I smelled the Black Knight last night, he—he smelled different. Not at all like he used to, and not much like Zelgius. I thought I must have gotten his scent confused with Zelgius', three years ago, but..."

"Was his scent familiar to anyone else's?" Ranulf asked.

"No... well, actually, maybe. There was a bit of Zelgius, still, but it was mostly..." She blanched slightly. "That was it. He smelled like blood."

"Blood...? You mean from the fighting?"

"No. Even before he'd fought much, he smelled of blood. Blood, a bit of Zelgius, and a bit of something else... that I didn't recognize."

There was an even longer pause. "Well," Ducessa finally said, "I really should get back to the rest of my squad. It's kind of late."

"You're not supposed to walk." Ranulf reminded her.

"I can probably go against orders for a bit." she said, starting to get up.

Ranulf grabbed her arms and pushed her down again. "Don't disobey the doctor's orders, Darkie." he said firmly. "No walking!"

"Are you going to carry me, then?"

He grinned wickedly and sat down next to her. "You know, my legs ache _so much._ I don't think I could walk another step."

She threw up her hands in frustration. "Well, then what am I supposed to do?!"

"Stay here." he replied matter-of-factly. "It's already late. You could use some rest."

"This is your tent." she stated.

"So? I have the feeling you don't have a tent to yourself, so you can borrow mine."

She sighed and laughed. "Oh, fine. Have it your way."

He grinned, then scooped her up for just a second to put her on his cot. "At least I don't owe you a princess-lift now." he said cheerily.

She sat up and frowned slightly. "What do you mean?"

"That night, when we crossed the river? Lethe told me you had to carry me princess-lift all the way back to her, after we got attacked by that fire mage."

She nodded. "Oh, yeah. Well, you never owed me for that. No good soldier leaves a companion behind. Especially not her captain."

"Well, still. You saved my life, too! I still owe you for that."

"Eh, not really."

"Really!"

She laughed. "Have it your way."

He put his blanket over her. She lay down again and stretched, fiddling with her gold locket with the flower on it.

Ranulf eyed it curiously. "Do you have a picture in that?" he found himself asking.

She followed his eyes to the locket and blushed slightly. "U-uh... yes." she said nervously.

"Who?"

"N-nobody important."

He grinned mischievously and touched it. She grabbed his hand before he could open it, though. "Really. Not important." she said quickly.

"Then why does it matter if I see it?" he asked coaxingly, sliding her hand off his.

She turned bright red and let go of his hand. He opened it and started.

Inside, drawn on a piece of paper inserted into the left side, was a small, cartoon-like drawing of a very familiar cat laguz's face. "Me?" he asked, his eyebrows raising.

Her face reddened even further. "Eheh... I-I... er..." she stammered.

He examined the picture. "Hey, this is actually a pretty good likeness. Did you draw this?"

She nodded, unable to speak.

He let go of the locket and sat back. "Nice! So why is my picture in there?"

She bit her lip and held the locket in her fist, closing it. "I-I-I... I needed s-s-someone's p-picture to p-put in it..." she stuttered.

"Oh, come on!" he said playfully. "Truthfully."

She sighed. "Okay. I... I kind of admire you. You're... you're a great guy, Captain. I admire you a lot. Fantastic fighter! Best cat laguz I've ever seen!"

He blushed slightly and smiled. "Well, there's a lot of people who are better than me. Ike, Zelgius... Skrimir... I mean, even _you're_ stronger than me when you're transformed!"

"No," she corrected, grabbing his arm. "You're just as great as them. And much greater than me, to be sure." She smiled wryly. "You're definitely better than Skrimir—don't tell him I said that."

"No, really! He's the future king!"

"He's reckless and hotheaded." she corrected. "Even I can see that."

"And I'm any better?" Ranulf challenged.

"Of course you are!" she said firmly. "Of course..."

His smile widened, and then he sat down next to the cot, leaning his head back next to hers. "I'll sleep on the ground. You have the cot."

"No," she corrected, sitting up on her elbows. "_You're_ the captain,_ you_ get the cot, _I_ get the ground."

"No," he corrected her, "_you're_ the lady."

"But you're the captain!"

"So? You're a girl!"

"Sexist!"

"Ah!" He pouted. "How rude!"

They stared at each other for a moment. "Share?" Ranulf suggested.

She turned slightly pink but nodded. "...Fine."

He batted his eyelashes and climbed up to lie down on her other side. "Just pretend I'm a pillow," he said soothingly.

She curled up, mewled slightly, and closed her eyes.

Later that night, Ike woke up in the darkness to find his husband wasn't beside him. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Zelgius?" he murmured.

Elena sighed and rolled over in her sleep, her face nuzzled in Ike's side. He smiled and patted her head lightly, then pushed the blanket aside and got up, grabbing his shirt. He tugged it on and went outside.

The night was cold and clear, the full moon overhead easily lighting the Laguz Alliance camp. A cold night breeze blew by him, making him shiver, reminding him of similar night three years ago...

He walked down the row of tents, towards the river. He had a feeling that was the right way to go. He passed a couple Cat guards, fast asleep. He didn't blame them. The last few days had been particularly exhausting...

He also passed by Ranulf's tent, and out of a weird sense of curiosity, he glanced inside. Ducessa had pretty much all of Ranulf's blanket and slept quietly, curled up beside the blue Cat himself. Ranulf had a contented smile on his face and purred in his sleep, one arm slung over Ducessa's waist. She made a cute little noise, rolling over slightly. Ike backed out again, leaving them to their rest.

He found his husband sitting by the river, staring across it at the distant fires of the Daein camp. He glanced up as Ike approached. "Could you not sleep, either?" he asked.

Ike shrugged slightly and sat down next to him. "Not very well. I keep dreaming... of that last duel with the Black Knight. The time I killed him."

"The real one, anyway." Zelgius added, looking back out across the river. "And now this impostor has appeared... I wonder whatever for."

"Sothe certainly can't be happy about it." Ike said wryly. "He hates anything I dislike... Black Knight included."

They were silent for a few minutes.

"The Black Knight... I don't understand how he could be back." Zelgius said softly. "Sephiran had the armor, but he wouldn't have given it to just anyone. Was it stolen...?"

"Who could possibly use that armor other than you?" Ike asked bluntly. "It was specifically _made_ for you."

"Sephiran told me that no one else could use it but I." Zelgius agreed. "So why he would have lied, I don't understand..."

Sothe had to get away for a while. Away from the army, from Daein, from the Black Knight—away even from his dear Micaiah. He sneaked out of the camp—easy enough—and ran.

He found himself running towards the river, but he didn't stop. He plowed all the way into the water and slogged through the marshes until he was about three-fourths of the way to the other side, and then he collapsed against a dead tree and cried quietly.

_Damn it all..._ he thought. _Damn Daein. Damn Begnion. Damn the laguz. Damn everything!_

Somehow, he hadn't realized it before. He hadn't realized that these were _people_ he was killing—_real_ people, with families and loved ones who would never see them again, with _names_. He'd been so emotionless, so uncaring...

That girl's eyes... that poor girl's eyes, as she tore away from him. The pain in her eyes, the terror...

He was surrounded by blood—remains of last night's viscous battle. Red pools around him, red like his hands, like the hole in the girl's leg and the blood that she spat when they broke combat. _Why is there so much blood...?_

She had a name. Lethe—his ally, three years ago, and now his enemy. She had called the girl's name, called it as the girl fell into the mud, bleeding, bleeding from the wound that he had given her.

_Why does it hurt so much?_ Sothe asked himself. _I... I have killed before...!_

It was the first time he'd fought a woman, he realized. Well, he may have fought women a _long_ time ago, but they were never enemy soldiers.

This one... the purple Cat with a Tiger's stripes. A Tiger's fangs. Spitting blood out as she reverted—just a girl.

_She didn't look any older than fifteen...! Goddess..._

The only reason he hadn't killed her was because Micaiah had called for a cease. If she hadn't, just then, who knew what Sothe might have done...

_Darkie,_ he remembered. That was the girl's name, the name that Lethe had cried—so odd, and yet somehow so fitting. _Darkie._

He heard a quiet laugh and frowned thoughtfully. That voice was strangely familiar... He stood up and moved through the water, careful not to make a sound.

He didn't have far to go before he saw them. _Commander Ike! And—and that other man as well. Zelgius._

They sat together on the bank, talking quietly. Zelgius held Ike's hand tightly in his own, and his other arm was around the Commander's shoulders comfortingly. They were both faintly smiling. The adoration in their eyes was all too obvious, especially as the older man leaned down and kissed Ike gently on the mouth.

_Oh. Right._ Sothe thought. _Ike's husband._

It surprised him how happy they were. They had just been betrayed by King Kilvas, their laguz general defeated, and now the Black Knight had reappeared—oh, that hated Black Knight! Why that damned knight had appeared, here, now, was beyond him.

And yet, Ike and his husband were... happy. _How can they be so happy?_ Sothe thought bitterly. _When I cannot, and I am the one on the... winning side?_

Maybe it was because they had each other. Maybe that was the key.

_I miss Micaiah,_he suddenly thought, something in his heart twisting painfully. He turned around and walked back towards the Daein side of the river, making not a sound.

Micaiah glanced up when Sothe entered the tent. "You're still awake?" she asked.

"That's obvious, isn't it?" he replied.

She smiled weakly, then sighed. "We're going to have to fight them tomorrow..." she mumbled. "Ike and the Mercenaries. Are you ready for that?"

"I'll stand by your side." he replied. "Better I than the Black Knight, anyway." He stepped forward and took her hand.

She nodded. "Better you..." She looked on the verge of tears. "Oh, Sothe. Why would Pelleas do something like this? We need to help the people of Daein—not—not this racial murder..."

"I told you... we should have left a long time ago." Impulsively, he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly.

"B-but... they t-trusted me..." she said, her face pressed against his chest. Her shoulders shook. "Leo trusted me...!"

"He didn't want this." Sothe said firmly. "None of us ever wanted this. And now... now Leo's gone."

Leonardo had fallen to a Tiger the night before. Right before Micaiah's eyes... and she couldn't do anything to help him. She closed her eyes now, and she could see him still... see him trying to run and tripping, hear his desperate cry for help... but then the Tiger had been upon him. She could still hear his screams... hear Edward shouting for him... hear the viscous snap, the tearing flesh, and then the terrible silence that followed—the silence of death...

He had been a friend, always there for them during the dark and early days of the Dawn Brigade. And... she could see him yet... so serious, so thoughtful. She could see his smile, on those few occasions when he had reason to. She could hear his reassuring and calm voice.

She could see his body, cold and lifeless. His blood pouring out into the mud.

Micaiah sobbed into Sothe's chest. "Oh, Goddess, Sothe, I can still see him... oh, Goddess..!_"_

Sothe sat down on the floor abruptly, pulling Micaiah down to sit in his lap, she still crying. "We have to get out of here." he said. "Before anyone else is killed in this foolish war."

"Sothe..." she choked. "I—I can't leave them...! Edward, Nolan, Laura, and all the others, not now..."

"Then we'll bring them, too!" he cried. "And we'll march back to Nevassa and tell Pelleas exactly how stupid this war is! Please, Micaiah. This war is killing you and it's barely just begun...!"

"But... I..."

"I can't watch you kill yourself over this." he said, tilting her head so she could look into his eyes. "Come with me. Please."

"I can't!" she sobbed. "I ca-a-a-a-n-n-t..."

She buried her face in his shoulder and cried. He pulled her closer and couldn't think of a single word to say.

_September 28__th__, 648._

"Are you certain I shouldn't come?" Soren asked.

Ike nodded. "The Black Knight is my foe. I can handle him."

"Bring Zelgius." Mist begged him.

"No, he's staying behind to take care of Elena and get a break." Ike reasoned. "He had a pretty bad injury in that last battle."

"But what about you?"

"I'll be fine, really."

"If you won't bring Zelgius, than let me come, at least!" she insisted. "I don't—I don't want to be somewhere else if you fight him again."

He sighed. "Fine, but then Haar is coming with us too. So he can pull you out if anything goes wrong."

She nodded, swallowing audibly. "A-all right. Promise you'll be careful."

"I promise."

So, when the battle began, Ike and Mist slogged through the bloodied waters to a small islet before the commanders of Daein, Haar flying above them. The rest of the Mercenaries went the other way, crossing down the land bridge to fight on even footing.

Mist couldn't get close enough and fell back to the others, much against her will. Haar had flown off to confront Jill.

When Ike fought the Black Knight, he was alone. Just like he wanted it.

"You aren't the Black Knight." Ike said simply when the knight stood before him.

His foe said nothing.

"You wear his armor." Ike continued. "The armor of the man I defeated in Castle Nados. But you are not him."

"I only defend the Maiden of Dawn." the Black Knight said finally. His voice stunned Ike—it was like going back in time, three years ago... to Zelgius' voice.

"You aren't him!" Ike insisted, his grip on Ettard tightening as he tried to ignore the beads of sweat on his forehead. "You are not Zelgius!"

"Of course I am not." His opponent raised his sword—it looked like the blade he'd wielded before, and yet it had a strange black smoky aura around it, and the image was blurred and indistinct. He aimed the edge at Ike, and the Hero realized that the Knight wasn't going to fight this honorably. He would strike Ike from afar, and Ike wouldn't be able to strike back. _Zelgius would have been more... honorable..._

Ike stepped back a pace. He suddenly realized how limited his movement was in the muddy water—how constricting these reeds were, how little he could move...!

"I am the Black Knight."

The sword came down. A shearing line of blue energy shot from the blade, cutting through anything in its path. Ike lurched to the side and managed to dodge some of it, but it hit his left arm solidly and scraped his leg as well. He bit his tongue and nearly collapsed, fiery pain shooting up his arm, crippling his leg, gore spurting from the wounds. He fell on his right knee as his left leg gave out, and he tried desperately to ignore the pain.

Then a second bolt sheared into his body, and the agony was too great this time. He screamed as blood erupted all down his front, pouring out into the muddy waters, and it was all he could do to remain relatively upright. His left leg was numb with sheer pain and his right was even worse. His arms—he couldn't feel his arms beneath the waves of pain washing over him. He felt a hot sting in his throat and coughed out blood, and looked down blankly at his front. He thought he could see his bare ribs where the skin had been ripped open, exposing his heart...

The third attack only missed him when he crumpled into the water, falling beneath the bloody surface waters, too weak to stand upright. If that one had hit, he surely would have been dead. Perhaps that would have been merciful, for the agony was almost more than he could bear.

Ike felt himself sink beneath the surface and cursed himself for being too weak to get out. Blood spurted from his mouth and nose into the water, enclosing his head in a red cloud. Ettard slipped from his grasp. He swayed in the water and something hit his chest, causing a wave of profound agony like nothing he'd ever felt to sweep over him. He tried to scream, but the sound dissipated into the murky water. He was choking, drowning, dying...

Then he felt a strong hand on his arm and he was hauled out of the river. He coughed thick blood and water, felt it pouring out of his nose. "Breathe," he dimly heard Haar tell him. "Breathe, dammit!"

He sucked in and felt his lungs weakly start again. Haar sighed in relief.

"How is he still alive?" Jill asked worriedly. "Wounds like that should have killed him!"

"All I know is I've got to get him to Mist." Haar said, hauling the Hero onto the saddle in front of him. The wyvern snorted at the extra weight.

"I'll cover you," Jill stated, drawing her Brave Axe. Haar nodded, then quickly took to the air.

Ike fell unconscious, slumping forward. Haar grabbed him around the middle, wincing as he touched the bloody, ripped flesh. "Hold on, Ike." he said quietly, then kicked his wyvern's sides. The mount understood his master's urgency and sped up, hurtling back towards the main diversion force.

When they finally found Mist, the Dragonlord called to her once before landing a little ways behind the others. Boyd covered her retreat as she dashed back to join him—and she nearly fainted when she saw him pull her brother out of the saddle. "_Ike!"_ she screamed in fear, nearly dragging him out of Haar's grasp as the Dragonlord set him down. "Oh my Goddess! W-what happened!?"

"The Black Knight hit him with the sword beams." Haar explained, taking care not to jostle Ike any more than necessary.

"Goddess! Goddess! Goddess!" she gasped, on the verge of hyperventilating. She pulled out her Mend staff, then abandoned it for a more powerful Recover staff instead, but her hands were too shaky to hold it steady. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

The blue waves of the healing magic washed over her brother, over his bloodied arms, his exposed ribs and heart. The skin knitted itself back together, the ribs realigning themselves beneath the powerful magical influence. The bleeding slowed, then stopped altogether. Ike coughed, choked slightly, and then his frantic breathing eased—eased almost to a complete stop.

Mist opened her eyes and set the staff aside, cradling Ike's head in her lap. "Oh, Ike... you can't die... not now... oh Goddess... Open your eyes!"

The young Hero groaned. His eyelids flickered, but did not open. But he was alive!

Haar picked him up again abruptly. "Are we done here yet?" he demanded.

Mist nodded. "I think so... Ulki said he heard Tibarn calling."

"Then I'm taking him back. Good luck." He shoved the boy up on the saddle, then climbed up behind him and took to the air.

Ike nearly woke up on the flight back, but he still literally fell out of the saddle when they landed. Zelgius was there to catch him. "Ike!" he cried, propping his husband up. "What happened!?"

"Black Knight..." Ike mumbled, half unconscious. "I'm... sorry..." And he passed out again, in Zelgius' arms.

_"__How did you do this!?"_

_"__I have my methods."_

_"__You—by the Goddess! What have you done...?"_

_"__Only what is necessary, Prime Minister."_

_"__You..."_

_"__Rest assured, I will see to it that you are... released. As we agreed."_

_"__...What have you done? _What _have you_ done?! ..._Oh, Zelgius...Zelgius, I'm so sorry..._"


	9. VIII

**_WARNING: This chapter contains graphic violence. Read at your own risk.  
_**

* * *

**~Chapter Eight**

_October 8__th_, 648.

Despite Ike's fall, the diversion created by the Greil Mercenaries allows the Laguz Alliance to slip successfully past the Daein army's blockade. Yet General Levail and his Central Army show no mercy and continue their relentless pursuit of the Laguz Alliance. The weakened alliance is forced to a hard choice: they must pass through the northern edge of the Serenes Forest. From there, they will try to make their way to a hidden road that will lead them out of Begnion and back to Gallia. From Serenes, however, they are forced to go to the Kauku Caves, with Begnion in close pursuit.  
"I hate caves," Deirdre muttered as the Greil Mercenaries walked through the volcanic corridors.  
"The feeling is mutual." Shinon replied. "At least _these_ caves."  
There was a crack and a hail of fire came down out of nowhere, nearly hitting the two Snipers. Shinon cursed and walked faster. Deirdre had to lightly jog for a moment to catch up to him.  
Rolf fell back to join them. "I hope we get out of here soon." he commented. "I'd rather not fight a battle in here."  
"The haze is so thick I can barely see twenty feet." Shinon agreed. "Damn place. We never should have come here."

Up ahead, Ike waved to Ranulf as he saw the Cat coming back to talk to them. "Begnions up ahead." Ranulf told him. "We have to take them out and clear a way for the wounded."  
Ike nodded. "Right. I'll call the rest of the Mercenaries to—" His chest throbbed painfully, a reminder of his fight with the Black Knight, and he stumbled, clutching at his heart for a moment.  
Zelgius put a hand on his arm. "You stay behind this time, Ike." he said admonishingly. "You're still hurt. Titania and I will lead the Mercenaries."  
Ike nodded again. "My turn to watch Elena." he said wearily.

When they fought in the next battle, Rolf marveled at how far Deirdre had come since Shinon had recruited her, about two weeks ago. He's seen her shoot a few times; he agreed with his mentor, she had natural talent, but she took far too long to line up her shot and she needed to hit a soldier multiple times before he would die. Apparently, Shinon had taken the challenge in stride and dealt with it rather well. She'd toughened up, she was much faster already, and occasionally she even managed to kill in one shot. She even had acquired a few more bits and pieces of armor, so much so she defended herself better when an enemy got into melee.  
He watched as she tagged along after his teacher—her teacher too now, he realized—finishing off the occasional soldier that Shinon didn't quite kill. He heard 'their' mentor's loud provocative insults, and then saw Deirdre shoot down the soldier that angrily came charging past Gatrie to attack the offending Sniper.  
He wanted to go with them, but he had been sent with the others to go down the middle. His job was to watch Rhys and Ilyana. Orders were orders. He saw a soldier approach Rhys and shot him down.

Zelgius took the lead as they approached the commander of the force. A pair of generals stood in his way, but it only took a few solid hits from his Silver Blade to bring them both down hard.  
He saw the Begnion commander, a general, flanked by a pair of dark sages. Titania rode up beside him. "You take out their commander; we'll get the rest of them."  
Zelgius nodded and Titania kicked her horse, galloping forward to crash into the ranks of soldiers. Oscar was right behind her. Behind them came Boyd, shouting a war cry; Rolf, raining death from the higher ledge; Ilyana and Soren, bringing the forces of air and thunder to the combat; Rhys and Mist, healing the injured; and Reyson, lending his voice to the battle.  
It only took the powerful Zelgius a few moments to get through the interfering soldiers. He approached the enemy commander—a man he recognized, a particularly weak-minded and cowardly, especially when it came to laguz, general named Septimus.  
"They told me that the enemy would be burnt by the time I reached them." he heard the general mutter. "The only thing I'd have to do was carry their dead bodies back as proof... It's just my luck that the enemy is alive and well! Why does this always happen to me?"  
The dark sages advanced towards Zelgius, beginning to swirl with purple and black magic as the spell began. He scoffed as they sent their spells towards him, the magic harmlessly sliding off his armor and not doing any hurt at all.  
Titania rode by him, swinging her Poleax in a long sweep and knocking one of the sages off his feet. An arrow soared past Zelgius' shoulder and slammed into the other sage, with a second following close behind. Zelgius ignored them and advanced to Septimus.  
"Wh-who are you?!" Septimus demanded as Zelgius came to stand before him.  
"I am surprised you cannot tell." Zelgius replied.  
Recognition dawned on the general's face. "G-General Zelgius?"  
Zelgius pointed his sword at Septimus threateningly. "Just Zelgius now. I see you do remember me."  
"Traitor!" Septimus spat. "You would fight your own country!"  
"Begnion never was my country, Septimus." Zelgius said flatly. "I only ever served for the sake of one man, and now I fight for love of another."  
The Begnion general sputtered, then just hefted his lance and attacked. Zelgius saw the weakness behind the blow and didn't even try to dodge, instead knocking the lance aside harmlessly with the tip of his sword. The enemy general recovered quickly and attacked again, but again his attack was harmlessly deflected. It only took two quick swings from the former Begnion general to defeat his opponent.  
"I never did like you." Zelgius informed him darkly, pulling his sword back.  
"I-I knew it... I knew I would end up like this..." Septimus mumbled as he collapsed, dead before he hit the ground.  
Zelgius glanced around and saw that the battle was mostly over. He walked back to rejoin the rest of the Mercenaries, mercifully striking down one Beginon soldier, caught on fire from the frequent rains of lava, as he went.  
"Are we clear?" he asked.  
"For now." Titania reported. "We didn't lose anybody. Haar, Jill, Nephenee, and Rhys have some bad burns, but they'll be all right. Also, Reyson's wings got scorched and he can't fly."  
Zelgius cursed. "The hawk king is going to be furious." he muttered.  
"And Shinon and Deirdre are missing." she finished regretfully. "Rolf was the last one who saw them."  
Zelgius cursed again. "All right. Send someone to tell the others we can move. Boyd, Rolf, Oscar, you're with me. We're going to find the other three. The rest of you, check for any remaining Begnion soldiers."  
The others nodded and spread out. The three brothers followed after Zelgius, and Rolf pointed out where he'd last seen the missing snipers. They found footprints going in three separate directions, so they split up to each go one way.

Ranulf came back to tell the others. "I think we're clear! Let's get moving, and fast!" he called, waving for Ike and Skrimir.  
Ike waved acknowledgement, then looked down at Elena. "You all right?" he asked.  
She nodded, wiping her sweat-drenched hair from her face. "I'm fine. Are we going to get out of here soon?"  
Ike nodded. "Yeah. Soon. Come on."

Zelgius and Rolf found a broken bow, not far from where the two Snipers had last been seen. Rolf picked it up and studied it, trying hard not to cry. "This... this is the bow I made for him." he said quietly. "For Shinon."  
Zelgius looked around, but this room was apparently a dead-end. The path ended on an island in the middle of a lava lake, which was where they were now. There didn't appear to be any other way out other than where they'd come, and that went straight back to the more open area where Rolf had last seen his mentor and the larger battle had been fought. There was nowhere they could have gone.  
"Where could they be?" Rolf asked, looking up from the bow.  
"We would have seen them if they'd come back the same way we came." Zelgius answered honestly. "And there aren't any of the same footprints going back."  
"But there's no way out of this room!" Rolf protested. "They must have gone back! That, or..."  
Zelgius turned to walk back. "Come on. We'll see if the others found anything. There's nothing here."  
Rolf looked at the broken bow in his hands. Then he stuck the pieces in his belt and ran after Zelgius.

They met back up with the other two at the entrance to the tunnels. "I didn't see Shinon or Deirdre." Oscar confirmed regretfully.  
"I found several dead Begnions." Boyd reported. "Killed by arrows. Their footprints doubled back, though. I figured they must have gone the other way."  
"Ours went to a dead end. We found this." Rolf said, holding up the broken bow.  
"What do we do now?" Oscar asked. "There doesn't seem to be anywhere they could have gone..."  
Zelgius turned back, looking at the tunnel that the laguz had already taken. "We don't have much choice." he said softly. "This place is a death trap. We should catch up to the others and get out of here."  
"But Shinon and Deirdre...!" Rolf protested.  
"Rolf..." Oscar said gently. "They're gone."  
"No!" Rolf insisted, tears in his eyes. "I'm not leaving until I find them!"  
"Listen, Rolf!" Boyd said. "There's nowhere they could have gone. They're dead. Dead! Probably burned to ashes in this hellhole."  
Rolf choked down a sob. "No! They—he _can't_ be dead! He isn't!"  
Zelgius looked at the boy sadly. He knew what it was like to lose a mentor...  
"It is possible that they were captured." he said.  
Rolf looked at him hopefully.  
"You three go with the others." Zelgius decided. "I'll look for them for another mark. Any longer and I'll have fallen too far behind."  
"I'm going to stay with you!" Rolf insisted. "I'm not leaving until we find Shinon!"  
"Go with your brothers." Zelgius said. "I'll be safer on my own."  
Rolf looked slightly hurt, but Oscar grabbed him and pulled him up on the saddle. "Don't get killed," he told Zelgius. "Ike still needs you."  
Zelgius nodded. "Go on." Oscar kicked his horse lightly and cantered down the path, towards the laguz. Boyd ran after them, and Zelgius turned back to the tunnels.  
_Where to start?_ he wondered.

The leaders finally emerged from the caves into bright daylight.  
"Oh, thank the Goddess." Elena said, vastly relieved, still clutching her dad's hand.  
Ducessa, leaning against Ranulf for support, smiled wearily. "Ah... finally!"  
"I thought we were finished... I thought my rashness had killed us. But we've lived to see our land again!" Skrimir said excitedly.  
"Uh, Skrimir? Take a good, long look around." Tibarn said. "This isn't Gallia."  
Skrimir's hopeful expression faded as he took in his surroundings. A long plain, stretching out with seemingly no end. Gallia was a forested country...  
A pair of official-looking Dragon laguz suddenly appeared, as if out of nowhere. "Halt!"  
"Goldoa." Ranulf swore under his breath. "Frickin' Goldoa. Goddess, did we screw up..."

It may have just been Zelgius' perceptions, but the Kauku Caves grew more violent the longer he stayed in them. Either that, or the other, more ominous option; he was going deeper into the caves, further from the surface.  
He'd lost track of the time, and he'd gotten turned around somewhere back there, so he didn't know which way was the way back. Fire rained down constantly, burning him whenever he wasn't fast enough to dodge. He ached and he was tired, but he stubbornly kept looking—for Shinon and Deirdre as much as for an exit...  
When he heard a weak cry. He froze, his hand tightening on his sword hilt. That had been Shinon's voice, he was sure...!  
Then he heard a cold voice, echoing through one of the nearby tunnels; "I grow weary of your stubbornness. Tell me what I want to know."  
He heard a strangled cough, possibly some words, and he recognized the voice. _Deirdre!_ He quickly determined the direction and went down the passage, his sword at the ready.  
The voices got louder. "Surely you would not have him die for the sake of a little direction?" the cold voice asked.  
"Damn..." he heard Shinon snarl weakly.  
"Silence!" There was a gory ripping sound and Shinon screamed. Zelgius was getting closer.  
"I grow weary of these games." the cold voice said. "Tell me what I want to know, or—"  
Zelgius emerged from the passage into a large, open room. It was a lake of lava, but stretching off from the right side was a peninsula that went all the way to the middle, connected to Zelgius' passage by a rather thin land bridge. On the other side, a similar bridge led to another tunnel.  
On the land near the right wall, there was a boy. Fifteen or sixteen, by features alone, but from the way he held himself and from the pure sense of rightful arrogance Zelgius got the sense he was much older. That, and he was obviously not Beorc. His skin was black, his hair the purest ebony, his glowing red eyes without pupil or iris. He held a sword, the crosspiece in the shape of violet-blue wings. The blade was stained with blood and the tip poised over Shinon, who was curled up on the ground, covered in blood, one leg twisted the wrong way. Deirdre was pinned to the wall with a dagger, and it seemed to be she that the boy was addressing.  
The boy and Deirdre turned to look at Zelgius when he entered the room. "Ah, but I see we are interrupted." the boy said pleasantly. "Your friend, I assume?"  
"Who are you?" Zelgius demanded, approaching quickly but cautiously.  
"Not an enemy of yours." the boy replied. "I only require information from the girl, and then I'll be on my way."  
Deirdre tugged futilely at the knife pinning her. "How can you say that?" she demanded. "You... tortured him...!"  
"Is he a friend of yours?" the boy asked Zelgius. "I do apologize."  
Zelgius stopped at the edge of the island, staring the boy down. "He is a mercenary under my husband's command." Zelgius stated. "As is she. You hurt them, then I consider you my enemy."  
The boy tilted his head curiously. "Husband...? Ah. You must be the famous General Zelgius. Or just Zelgius now, I suppose."  
"Who are you?" Zelgius asked again.  
"Dark Link." the boy stated.  
Deirdre managed to pull the knife out and shot to her feet, pointing it at boy. "You're the Shadow!" she said angrily. "You killed my brothers!"  
"Ah, yes. The Gordin boys." Dark Link said calmly. He didn't flinch—nor did he remove the sword tip from Shinon's throat, an unspoken threat. "Tell me what I want to know, or there will be even more blood on my hands."  
Zelgius stepped forward warily. "What _do_ you want to know?" he asked.  
The Shadow laughed. "Ah, but that is something only the young lady here can tell. Speak, Deirdre." In the blink of an eye, he swept forward and around the girl, grabbing her wrist and twisting the knife out of it while bringing the sword to her neck at the same time. "Where is Prince Marth?"  
She jerked her head backward into his face, pushing the sword away. He dropped her and swept back, only to find himself staring down Zelgius' blade, the former General standing protectively next to Shinon's prone body. "I would challenge you to fight, but I have the feeling that _he_ would not last that long." Zelgius stated.  
"An honest assessment." Dark Link replied. "Perhaps I'll return for the duel another day, then. For now, I shall retreat." He sheathed his sword on his back, then spun about and ran twenty feet, straight past the startled Deirdre, and leapt off the island. He did a flip and plunged into the lava, his red cloak twisting around him and turning him into a black arrow moments before he hit the surface. He plunged through the fiery surface and vanished, and the lava wasn't disturbed.  
Deirdre barely waited for him to leave before rushing to Shinon's side. "Sensei!"  
Zelgius sheathed his sword and knelt down next to Shinon, checking his wounds. He was indeed very near the point of death; his ribs, wrists, and left leg were broken, he had cuts and bruises all over his face, several gashes on his side, and, to Zelgius' personal disgust, his right little finger was cut off. Zelgius quickly produced his Vulnerary and forced the man to drink the last of the contents. Shinon choked and spluttered, then swallowed weakly.  
Deirdre rubbed the back of her head. "Will he be all right?" she asked worriedly.  
Zelgius checked him again. He was sleeping now. "I only had one use of the Vulnerary left." he told her. "He'll live, long enough for us to find a healer at least."  
Shinon moaned and tried to sit up. "I'm... fine... that stupid... bastard..." he said weakly, then coughed a mouthful of blood.  
"Sensei, you're hurt..." Deirdre told him. "Your leg's broken... you aren't fine."  
"I'll... live..." He coughed again and tried to get up. He put a little weight on his leg and choked down a cry.  
Zelgius abruptly picked Shinon up bridal-style. The Sniper promptly passed out, and the former general looked to Deirdre. "Are you well enough to walk?"  
She nodded. "Come on. I think this is the way out."  
He followed her to the tunnel opposite the one he'd entered, and a moment later they were going up.

"We have to go talk to Deghinsea." Ranulf told Ike, a few hours after they'd left the caves. "We can't wait any longer."  
"He should have been out by now!" Ike fretted. "Where could he be?"  
"Wherever Zelgius is," Ranulf said, "he'll be able to survive on his own. He is the—er—he is very strong. But we have to go, unless you want to go back in there."  
"Those caves are a death trap! We never should have gone in there." Ike said darkly, barely paying attention to Ranulf.  
"Ike? We have to go!"  
"Where is he...?" Ike mumbled.  
Ranulf punched his shoulder. "Zelgius will be fine! Come on."  
Ike finally noticed he was there. "Go where?" he asked blankly.  
Ranulf sighed in frustration.

Rolf sat with Elena, both of them fretting over different people. "Father... Father, please be safe..." Elena prayed.  
_Shinon... please be alive..._ Rolf begged silently. _Please don't be dead. I wouldn't know what to do without you...  
_ Elena, eventually, got so worried that she had to find her stress reliever. She chased down Soren and began playing with his hair, much to his alarm. Ilyana thought it was funny.  
Rolf had no such way of relieving his stress, however. So he just prayed over his mentor's broken bow.

"I can smell fresh air!" Deirdre called, up ahead of Zelgius and Shinon. "We're almost out!"  
"Thank Ashera," Zelgius muttered to himself. "I hope we come out near the others."  
A few minutes later they emerged into the air. They were up on a cliff ledge, several hundred feet up the mountain. A winding path on their left trailed down the cliffside. It was night, the stars high overhead, and far out before and below them stretched a jungle for as far as they could see. "Gallia." Zelgius breathed. "We made it."  
Deirdre looked around worriedly. "I don't see the army." she said worriedly. "Unless we came out miles away from them, we should have been able to see their camp."  
Zelgius' faint smile faded. "Oh no... what if..."  
She looked up at him. "What?"  
"What if they came out in Goldoa?" he asked. "The caves supposedly exit to both places."  
Deirdre bit her lip. "What do we do?"  
Zelgius set Shinon down gently. The man moaned and curled up again, trying to shut out the pain. "You wait here. I'll go back and see if I—"  
"No!" Deirdre said quickly. "You saw how helpless I was," she explained when he looked at her curiously. "If the Shadow came back, he could kill us both. You're the only one here who could face him. We have to stick together."  
Zelgius thought for a moment, then nodded reluctantly. "You're right. But... we can't go back into the caves, then. We'll... we'll look for a village, see if we can find anyone with a healer." He picked Shinon up again and started on the path down the mountain.  
It was a long walk down. By the time they reached the bottom, the path spilling out into the forest with no visible road, Deirdre was near to collapse. Zelgius stopped her at the bottom. "We should rest now."  
"No... Sensei's dying!" she insisted. "We don't know how much longer he has before... before he..."  
"Moving him probably isn't good for him anyway. And you won't be much good to him when you're too tired to walk." Zelgius chastised. "You both could use some sleep."  
She sighed and sat down abruptly. "Oh, all right..."  
He set Shinon down carefully. The Sniper didn't even moan this time, or make any sound—not a good sign. "We'll rest for a few hours, if we can... then we have to find a healer." he said decisively.  
Deirdre gently ran a hand along the side of Shinon's face sadly. Her finger traced a deep cut over his left eye that had filled his eyes with blood and sighed. "Please..." she whispered. "Don't die because of me... this is all my fault... oh Goddess, please don't die."  
Zelgius moved off to get some firewood—the smoke of a campfire might alert the Laguz Alliance, if they were nearby.  
_"Don't die now..."_ Deirdre mouthed. _"Please... not now... I can't lose anyone else...!"  
_ She dozed off into fretful dreams, reliving her memories...

_"I don't want you to go." I begged pitifully, clutching my older brother's shirt sleeve.  
_ _My middle brother Kane laughed, pulling his sleeve away. "Relax, Deirdre! We know what we're doing."  
_ _"We're trained professionals!" Calhoun, a year younger than Kane, said cheerily. "Father always said I wielded the sword better than anyone he knew!"  
_ _"In your dreams." Jareth, my eldest brother, chuckled.  
__Samar, just five years older than me, took my hand gently. "We'll be all right, Day, I promise." he said comfortingly. Day. That was what all my brothers called me.  
__"But... the Shadow's killed so many..." I fretted, chewing my hair as I always did when I was nervous. "I-I don't want to lose any of you...!"  
__Sam pulled my hair out of my mouth, smiling comfortingly."We'll come back." he assured me. "I promise."_

_I never saw them again. I got a few letters, speaking of the Shadow's advance, but then they abruptly stopped.  
__I got a letter from their post on the Doluna border. It was a few days before the greater part of the Altean Army, including the senior Royal Knights, would set out for their last stand against the Shadow. It was written by Lyndsay Ogma, Jak's older sister.  
__"Deirdre. I'm so sorry to have to tell you this, but...The border's fallen. The fortress is taken. Your brothers are dead."  
__No one should have to hear those words... should have to read them on a tattered, tear-stained parchment, and know the implications of those four words, those five syllables, those nineteen simple letters.  
__"Your brothers are dead."  
__I remember all the other letters I've read, from my friends. All the youngest siblings of the Descendants, as we liked to call ourselves. As their brothers and sisters and parents were killed by the Shadow.  
__"Your brothers are dead."  
__Dustin Abel, staring into nothingness, his face wet with tears, both his parents gone. Kester Cain, normally so strong and brave, sobbing into his pillow, his mother, brother, and three sisters all dead. Jak Ogma, his shoulders shaking uncontrollably, not even able to lift his head, his only sister and family fallen on the battlefield. Elwyn and Luna Julian, crying onto each other's shoulders, their parents and little brother lost. Will Merric, at a loss for words, crumpling the tear-stained paper in his hands, his father and brother gone forever. All their friends, their family, and their friends' families... gone.  
__"Your brothers are dead."  
__So many had been lost to the Shadow. I am the last of my line, because of the Shadow. I, along with twelve others, am the last Akaneians alive... because of the Shadow. How I hate him._

_Her mind flew to her new mentor, her sensei, the man who had chosen to help her for no better reason than the fact that she had 'talent'... or so he claimed..._

_"Damn this haze!" Sensei said angrily, wiping the sweatdrops out of his eyes. "I can't even tell where the rest of the Mercenaries are!"  
__"I think they were down that tunnel." I said, pointing one out.  
__Sensei shot a Begnion soldier that tried to get up. "Are you sure?" he asked.  
__I shook my head. "No, but it's my best guess."_  
_"Well, better than nothin'." He ran into the tunnel, but waited at the entrance for me._ _I ran after him, and I had the feeling my eyes were glowing. I'd only known Sensei for a few weeks, and yet I admired him more than anything. He was such an amazing archer... sure, his attitude wasn't always that pleasant, but he was good to me, and to Rolf—the boy, so much like a son to the experienced Sniper. He called him "Uncle Shinon" but it should have been "Father" because that's how close they were. And yet, I sensed that Sensei had been distancing himself from his young apprentice. Why, I couldn't imagine. I hoped it wasn't because of me.  
__We ran lightly down the passage. I tripped, and he stopped to pull me to my feet. Could I truly find a friend again, after my entire family had died?  
__I prayed it was so.  
__We came out of the tunnel, but got turned around and ended up going down another one. "We're probably going in circles." Sensei complained.  
__Kane had had an attitude like his. Jareth, too. The same protective-but-pretending-not care as Calhoun. He reminded me so much of my brothers sometimes... it was like having my family back, when I was with him.  
__We came out into a circular room, a rocky island in the middle of a lava lake. "Damn, we must have taken a wrong turn." Sensei said.  
He turned to go back, but stopped when we heard a cold, calculating voice;_ _"I've been looking for you."  
__My blood ran cold. "No..." I gasped. Sensei turned back again.  
__Out of the haze and smoke, a dark figure stepped. Sixteen years old. Black skin, ebon hair, glowing red eyes devoid of iris or pupil. "Deirdre Gordin."  
__"Friend of yours?" Sensei asked sarcastically.  
__"The Shadow." I said darkly. "The one who destroyed Akaneia."  
__Sensei's hand went to his quiver in an instant. So protective.  
_ _"Ah, so you have heard of me." The boy laughed coldly. "And you have gotten yourself a friend. How... quaint."  
__"What the hell are you doing here?" Sensei demanded. I shot him a quick admiring glance.  
__"This does not concern you. You might as well leave." the Shadow said. "This is 'tween I and Deirdre."  
__"If it concerns my apprentice, then I think it damn well concerns me, too. And frankly, I don't trust you." Sensei shot back.  
__Everything I knew about the Shadow came back to me in a rush.  
__"You will only interfere with our... hmm." The Shadow seemed to think for a moment. "On second thought, perhaps you can help me make her talk. Yes, stay."  
__For a moment, I thought my heart had stopped.  
__"Sensei. Run." I said, as calmly as I could.  
__He glanced at me incredulously. "From this kid? I can take him."  
__"Run! He can't—"  
__Sensei drew an arrow and fired. The Shadow leaned slightly, and it slammed into his shoulder. The boy pulled the arrow out and looked at it curiously, then tossed it aside as the brief blood flow abruptly stopped, the wound already closing itself. "How amusing."  
__Sensei gaped. "What in the—"  
__Suddenly the Shadow was in motion, his sword a blur as he charged in fast. I almost screamed and fell backwards, but I wasn't the target; exactly what I'd feared. A line of black smoke came from the Shadow's blade, fanning out to surround the three of them. Sensei vanished behind a swirl of ash.  
__I felt like I was going to throw up. My head was fuzzy and my mind was a whirl, surrounded by the choking black smoke._ _Then the smoke cleared, and we were somewhere else. Another cave, another island in another lake of lava, except this island extended from the wall—the wall I now stood with my back to. And I could now see clearly around me.  
__Sensei's bow—that one that Rolf had given him—was gone. The Shadow had knocked him to the ground, and his sword tip hovered menacingly over the Sniper's throat.  
__"Sensei!" I cried.  
__"You will tell me what I want to know," the Shadow said darkly, "or I will make his death more painful than anything either of you have ever known."  
_ _Sensei instinctively kicked at the Shadow's legs, but the boy danced around his attack, stomping on Sensei's wrist hard enough to break. There was an audible snap, and he nearly gasped._ _"Be still, lest I make the killing hurt more." The Shadow turned back to me, staring me down with those horrible red eyes. He slid a pair of long, thin knives out of hidden wrist sheathes and spun them carelessly in his hands. "Marth Lowell III, Crown Prince of Altea. Where is he?"  
__I'd vowed not to tell, in the face of any threat. I had lost everything; I'd thought abandoning my life for the Prince would be easy for me. But now... it hurt. It hurt too much...  
__The Shadow threw a knife suddenly. I barely stepped aside in time, but as it was it stabbed through the barest edge of my collar and pinned me to the wall. Then, without missing a beat, he stepped hard on Sensei's other wrist, slammed one knee into Sensei's chest, and sliced it across Sensei's shoulder, violently tearing the flesh open. Sensei stifled a cry.  
"How much pain will he take before you speak?" the Shadow taunted.  
__He was going to do it. He was going to take Sensei from me, and I would be alone again.  
__"Damn you." was all I could say. "Damn you."_

Deirdre started awake to find herself still slumped next to Shinon. Zelgius had made a small fire, and he sat on the other side of it, looking the other way, out into the forest.  
She sat up slightly and winced, sore from sleeping in that unnatural position. She stretched herself out, lying down next to Shinon and still gently holding his wounded hand.  
"Don't die," she whispered, so quietly that not even Zelgius could hear her. "Think of what it would do to Rolf!"  
He rolled over slightly, a quiet, weak moan escaping his lips. "Don't die, Sensei." she repeated. "For Rolf, and for me, you have to live! I... I need you..."

Zelgius woke her two hours later. "He's very weak." he told her softly. "We have to find help, soon."  
Deirdre nodded and got up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "Are you sure we can move him?" she asked worriedly.  
"No, but if we don't he won't have any chance at all."  
Zelgius kicked some dirt on the fire and gently picked Shinon up, careful not to jar him.  
Deirdre eyed the Sniper worriedly, then picked up one of the smaller logs of the fire, blew on it to get it going again, and walked ahead into the forest, torch in hand.

Judging from where the caves were, they got a pretty good guess on which direction the capital was, and made their way towards that. It was fairly slow-going through the jungle, with Zelgius carrying Shinon and Deirdre on the point of nervous breakdown.  
They walked for hours, with no signs of laguz or Beorc. Shinon was getting worse; his pulse was down to almost nothing and his breathing was nearly nonexistent. What was worse than that, after a long time Deirdre noticed that Zelgius was tiring. He was strong, but even he got tired after going for Ashera knew how long, carrying a dying Sniper without a moment's sleep at all.  
Now she worried that if the Shadow did appear, Zelgius wouldn't be strong enough to face him.  
The sun was rising. Even this deep in the forest, they could see the light creeping in through the foliage overhead. Shinon was running out of time.

Zelgius finally got too tired to go on. Deirdre told him to put Shinon down and rest, and after a bit of arguing he did so. She looked at him once, regretfully, then down to the dying Sniper.  
"Please live, Sensei." she said quietly. "I'll find help." Then she checked the Shadow's dagger—it was still in her belt, where she'd absently put it after the fight—and ran into the forest.

Alyxaidra, a cat laguz with bright blue hair, was already up and about for the day. She tended to wake up before the rest of the laguz in her village, before dawn—unusual for a Cat, true, but she liked to get an early start. She learned it from the Beorc twins that were living with her, she claimed, though her habit had come around a lot longer before then.  
She checked her to-do list for the day and decided that the first order of business was to catch something for breakfast. She grabbed a few healing herbs, in case she injured herself, and then trotted into the forest.  
It didn't take her long to sense something. While most of the forest creatures were fairly quiet, or subtle at least, _something_ had been crashing around earlier and had left a distinct scent all over. Alyx tested it, then recognized it. _Beorc!_ It wasn't her friends' scent, either... this was some strange Beorc she'd never smelled before. Alyx moved cautiously.  
Then the scent got stronger, more recent. _The Beorc was here not long ago..._ She decided to follow it, and lightly jogged through the undergrowth, following the scent.  
She heard the Beorc before she saw it, and when she crept up to a tree and peeked around, she was surprised. She'd been expecting a lost boy from one of the northern Beorc settlements, but this girl had armor and a knife. Alyx's ears went back.  
The blue-haired girl was walking slowly through the forest, looking exhausted. The knife was in her belt, which was of some relief for Alyx, but the girl was still Beorc...  
Alyx stepped on a twig. The girl started and whipped her head about, and Alyx cursed herself mentally. But there was nowhere she could hide, so she just prepared herself to Shift.  
The girl saw her tense and called "Wait! I—I'm not an enemy!"  
Alyx cocked her head curiously and waited. "I was with the Laguz Alliance." the girl explained. "The Greil Mercenaries? Me and a couple of my friends—we got separated from the rest on the way back."  
"Way back?" Alyx asked as curiosity got the better of her. "I thought we were going into Begnion."  
"A Begnion general defeated Skrimir." the girl said. "We were coming back and we had to go through the Kauku Caves. We got separated in a battle and came out the wrong exit..."  
"Skrimir, defeated?" Alyx asked incredulously.  
The girl nodded. "Yes. Kilvas betrayed us."  
Alyx sighed. "Well, why didn't you go back through the caves and rejoin the rest of the Alliance army?" she asked.  
"Because my friend is dying!" the girl blurted. "He got really badly hurt and we didn't want to take him back through the caves like this but I don't know how much longer he has and he might be dead already!"  
Alyx's eyes widened. She didn't know this girl and she didn't know if she could trust her, but she was a natural healer and a dying person was very real to her. "I have some healing herbs. Where is he?"  
"I can take you to them." the girl said quickly. "I don't think they're far... I walked in a straight line and I marked a few trees, so I should be able to find them again." She turned around and ran straight past Alyx into the forest. The Cat understood the urgency and raced after her.  
"I'm Alyxaidra." the Cat said as they ran.  
"Deirdre." the girl replied.

It didn't take Deirdre long to find them. Zelgius was still asleep, and Shinon was barely breathing at all. Alyx went straight to him, examining him quickly and frowning.  
"This is bad," the Cat said, putting some of the herbs on his wounds. "I don't know if I can heal him completely, but I think I can keep him alive if we get him back to my house. I know a priest—she'll be able to heal him, I think."  
Deirdre nodded and looked at Zelgius reluctantly. Then she gently shook him to wake him.  
"Zelgius." she said gently as he stirred. "We need you to carry Sensei."  
He groaned and sat up, holding his head. Then he saw Alyx, and started. "Who?"  
"She's a friend. She's going to help." Deirdre said reassuringly.  
Zelgius groaned slightly, pushing himself to his feet. He looked utterly exhausted, and Deirdre felt guilty for waking him, but both she and Alyx were too small to carry the Sniper and they couldn't leave Zelgius behind anyway.  
"He must be strong to have lasted this long." Alyx commented.  
"He is." Deirdre assured her. "He is."

After Zelgius carried Shinon back to Alyx's house and put him in the Cat's bed(she insisted), he promptly sat down against the wall and fell asleep again. Alyx went to get her healer friend. Deirdre sat at Shinon's side.  
"If you can hear me," she said softly, "we're safe. Alyx is going to save you." She smiled wryly. "So don't go hating on laguz anymore, okay?" She sighed. "And thank you." She held his hand tightly. "You survived..."

Much to her surprise, when Alyx returned she was accompanied by a very familiar face. "Luna!?" Deirdre gasped.  
The elegant red-head woman started. "What—Deirdre?!"  
The smaller blue-haired girl practically flew forward to hug her friend. "Luna Julian! It _is_ you!" she cried happily.  
"You know her?" Alyx asked, confused.  
Luna smiled and patted Deirdre's head gently, nodding to Alyx. "Yes, she's an old friend of mine." To Deirdre, she asked "What are you doing here? You were supposed to be in Begnion!"  
"I joined up with the Greil Mercenaries." Deirdre told her, pulling back again. "We were retreating through the Kauku Caves and—we got separated. Sensei is dying!"  
"Sensei? You have a sensei now?"  
She sighed. "There isn't time to explain that... please... Sensei..."  
"Well, that is why I'm here." Luna said, presenting her Mend staff. "Where is he?"  
Deirdre practically dragged her into the bedroom. Luna eyed Zelgius in surprise. "Wasn't he in Melior...?"  
"Zelgius. Commander Ike's husband, remember?" Deirdre said hurriedly. "Please—Sensei!"  
The red-head bent down over the Sniper, examining his wounds. She sucked in a breath. "What happened to him?"  
"The Shadow." Deirdre said solemnly. "He must have tracked me somehow... Me and Sensei got separated from the others in the caves, and the Shadow found us. He tortured Sensei... to try and get me to tell where Prince Marth is."  
Luna's eyes widened. "No! The Shadow... he couldn't have! Not so quickly!"  
"I didn't tell him anything." Deirdre said quietly, moving to stand beside Luna. "He... he probably would have killed Sensei, if Zelgius hadn't shown up. He came to find us after we went missing. The Shadow fled, thank the Goddess."  
Luna held the Mend staff over Shinon and closed her eyes, mouthing the spell. Healing magic washed over the Sniper and Deirdre relaxed. She stepped backward and sat down abruptly next to Zelgius. "He'll be all right..." she murmured. "Luna will heal him... damn you, Shadow, but we've won this time. Yes! He'll live... he will survive."  
All her weariness caught up to her at once—that sleep earlier hadn't been very restful—and she leaned against Zelgius' shoulder and fell asleep.  
Alyx looked at her sympathetically, then moved to join Luna. "Is she one of the refugees you told me about?" she asked.  
Luna nodded, lowering the Mend staff with a sigh. "Yes. She's the youngest of us, besides Prince Roy. I don't understand how the Shadow could have found her so fast..."  
"Maybe he was in the area at the time and he got lucky." Alyx suggested.  
"She said they were in the Kauku Caves, right? Who would be randomly passing through there?"  
"The Shadow would."  
Luna conceded the point. "He never was very predictable in his movements."  
She checked Shinon again. Most of his wounds were healed over, and his breathing was steady. "I think he'll be all right. He might have some scars—like this cut down the side, here—but he'll live. I have to go talk to Elwyn..."  
Alyx shook her head quickly. "I'll get Elwyn. She's still over with Chrystia, right? You should check those two." She gestured towards Zelgius and Deirdre. "They might be injured. I won't be long." Then she walked out of the room.  
Luna went over and bent down next to Deirdre. The girl appeared to be murmuring in her sleep—that had always been her habit aboard the ship, Luna recalled. They'd commonly slept next to each other, and sometimes when Deirdre was nervous or scared she kept Luna up for hours with her sleepy mutterings about her brothers.  
This time, however, she was mouthing one word, over and over again. _"Sensei."  
_ Luna frowned and looked back to the sleeping sniper on the bed. _What is it about this man that she cares about him so much?_ she wondered. _Calls him Sensei? Deirdre hasn't cared for anybody this much—or called anybody sensei—since her brothers died..._

__

Damn that girl. She's far too stubborn for her own good. And she obviously cares for that man very much... yet she would watch him die before her eyes rather than give me a simple piece of information. Be tortured... for an hour, almost two, without giving in...Strange. I seem to recall the heroes_ were the ones who gave up the knowledge for their loved ones' protection.  
_ _Perhaps she simply does not care for him. Or... maybe she is not a hero. A fascinating question._


	10. IX

**~Chapter Nine**

_October 9__th__, 648._

When Zelgius woke up, he found himself in a bed. It was a bit small for him, but it was still a fairly nice bed. His mind was fuzzy, and it took him a minute to remember exactly how he got here, on the bed. He vaguely recalled a blue-haired cat laguz who said she would help them...

He sat up and winced when the headache hit him. _How did that happen?_ he wondered vaguely. _I don't remember getting hit on the head... ow._

He heard footsteps and looked up to see a beautiful, elegant red-headed woman, wearing a green cloak and a light turquoise dress with a pair of sashes about the waist, enter the room, carrying a bowl. She smiled. "I figured you'd wake up about now, so I made some soup. You must be hungry." She offered it to him.

He took it, his head still a bit fuzzy. "Where am I?" he asked.

"This is the house that I and my sister are sharing with Alyx. This is her son's room, but he's in the army right now, so you're free to use it." She laughed softly. "Oh, but I haven't introduced myself. I'm Elwyn Julian. Luna is my twin—she healed your friend—and Alyxaidra is the Cat that found you."

"Zelgius, of the Greil Mercenaries." he replied. "Where is Deirdre? And—Shinon. Is he all right?"

"They're both still sleeping. Deirdre should be awake soon. Luna healed all your injuries. Your things are over there, if you want them." She turned to walk out of the room. "Let me know if you need anything!"

He nodded, then sat there blankly for a few minutes, trying to focus his thoughts. _Everything is still so fuzzy... Goddess... I hope Ike is all right._

Deirdre woke up to a cat purring. She sat up slightly and found she was on a makeshift mattress on the floor, with a gray tabby curled up next to her. She pet it gently and it purred. By its size, she guessed it was a mundane cat—the ordinary kind, not the laguz kind.

The cat woke up and blinked sleepily, and she smiled brightly.

"Fuzzy! What are you doing here?" someone scolded cheerily. "You woke Deirdre up!"

Deirdre recognized the voice. "Luna?" She sat up more fully to see the red-head woman in the doorway.

"Glad to see you're awake." Luna said, bending down next to her and petting the cat. "It's already early afternoon."

"Are we still in Alyx's house...?"

"Yes. Me and Elwyn are living here, basically—she rents out her son's room while he's away in the war." The woman cuddled the gray kitty and stood up. "Elwyn made some soup earlier, if you're hungry. There should still be some in the kitchen. Oh, and your friend Zelgius woke up—I think he's talking with Alyx. Your other friend is still asleep. I'll be outside if you need anything." Then she left with the cat.

Deirdre paused for just a few minutes before pushing the covers off and getting up, leaving this room to look for the other bedroom.

It didn't take her long to find it. Shinon was indeed sleeping—not unconscious, but quietly asleep. He had blood on him, but on Deirdre's quick inspection there were no wounds. He had a lot of angry red lines, most of which would probably turn into scars, and he still had bandages on his forehead, ribs, and wrists. His leg was bandaged and splinted, too—even broken limbs took a week or two to heal, even when under the influence of a powerful staff-wielder. She winced when she saw his heavily wrapped right hand.

"Can you hear me, Sensei?" she asked gently. When she got no response, she continued; "You probably wouldn't allow me to thank you if you were awake, and you probably wouldn't let me apologize either, so I'll say it now. I'm sorry the Shadow hurt you. It was my fault, and I should have... I should've just told him what he wanted, rather than let him torture you. I was a fool... this is all my fault." She took his hand and squeezed it for just a moment. "And I'd also like to say thank you. For surviving, and not dying for my stupid mistake."

One of the Sniper's eyes opened halfway. "It wasn't a mistake." he said quietly.

She started and let go of his hand. "Oh! Y-you're awake—I—er..."

"That kid is a... bastard. He probably would have killed us both straight off if you had... told him." Shinon said, opening the other eye. "So... that was probably the best thing to do... what you did."

She smiled weakly. "See... I was right... you won't allow me to apologize."

He laughed slightly, then coughed and tried to sit up. "Ugh... what happened after Zelgius found us...?"

"He carried you out. We came out in Gallia..."

He coughed again. "Damn... sub-humans."

"Don't say that!" she said quickly. "One of them saved your life."

Shinon groaned and fell back again. "Great... anythin' else I should know about?" he asked sarcastically.

"Well... the Julian twins are here, too. Elwyn and Luna."

"Nyhh... Alteans?"

"Yes. How do you feel?"

"Like hell..." She suddenly felt his hand grip hers tightly, and she nearly started again.

"You'll probably feel better in an hour or two." Deirdre assured him, placing her other hand on top of his and smiling brighter. "Maybe you should rest a bit."

"...Do Alteans make good food?"

She laughed. "Elwyn's a great cook. I'll find you something—"

"Ah—don't leave just yet." he murmured, closing his eyes and falling back on the pillow again. "This... isn't half bad..."

She felt a sudden, overwhelming urge to hug him. She pushed that impulse away, guessing that he wouldn't like it if she tried. "Half... bad?" she asked.

"nhh... mostly good."

Then she did lean down and hug him gently, and to her surprise he didn't argue.

_October 11__th__, 648._

If anyone was truly awed by the capital of Goldoa, it was Elena. While her dad and the laguz kings were in the meeting with Deghinsea, she marveled at all the dragons. Elena had never seen a dragon before. They weren't necessarily here under the best circumstances, and she was still worried about her father, but Elena could still take the opportunity to dragon-watch. Soren, the one set to watch her, was just bored.

At one point, she was greeted by a young boy with red hair and a single peculiar white streak. "You must have come with the Laguz Alliance!" he said cheerfully, offering his hand. "I'm Mark."

"Elena." she replied, taking his hand nervously and not entirely sure what to do with it.

He shook it and smiled. "Oh—you're Commander Ike's daughter! My mother has told me about him. He sounds like a wonderful man."

"Oh, he is!" Elena assured the boy, smiling brightly. "He's the best dad ever! Though Aunt Soren says he's too motherly at times."

She heard the man do a spit-take(though he hadn't been drinking anything). "Aunt?! _Aunt_ Soren!?"

She giggled and his face turned red.

"Soren. You're here as well?" Mark asked, just noticing the sage then. "Well met! I never got to see you much in Melior."

"Likewise." Soren said stiffly, glaring at Elena harshly. She just giggled again.

"Oh! Do you want to talk to Mother?" Mark asked. "I'm sure she'd be glad to see you."

"Where is she?" Soren asked.

"Oh, she's not far. I'll get her." He ran off, disappearing into the streets.

"You know him?" Elena asked.

"He is one of the Alteans." Soren replied. "And don't call me that again."

"What, Aunt Soren?" she asked innocently just as Mark returned.

Soren sputtered as the beautiful viridian-haired woman and the smaller blue-haired girl laughed. "'Aunt' Soren? Hmm. I haven't heard that one before." the older woman said slyly.

"Who told you to call me that?" Soren demanded of the Branded girl.

She pretended to be offended. "But you're too _pretty_ to be called '_Uncle_' Soren." She and the blue-haired girl both devolved into giggles as he turned sixteen shades of red and fumed.

"Ah—this is my mother, Tiki, and my sister, Lucina." Mark said, gesturing to the viridian-haired woman and the blue-haired girl in turn. "Mother, Lucina, this is Elena, Commander Ike's daughter."

"You're his daughter?" Tiki asked, her eyes sparkling as she patted Elena's head. "You're a lucky girl. He is a fine man."

"So it's been said." Elena replied. "Father is a good man too! Why does nobody ever say that? You'd hurt his feelings, if he knew!"

Lucina blinked, slightly confused. "Isn't Commander Ike your father?"

Elena laughed. "No, he's my dad! Father's name is Zelgius."

Tiki nodded understandingly. "He is a good man, too. He takes care of you, and Ike."

She nodded. "Yes... but..." she looked away reluctantly, "Dad said he got lost, in the caves... I haven't seen him for days. I hope he's all right..." Her hand subconsciously strayed towards Soren's hair, and he quickly slapped it away.

"Aww, Aunt Soren." Tiki teased. "You don't like the girl playing with your _pretty_ hair?"

Soren's face turned an even deeper shade of red and he refused to speak. All three girls giggled and Mark smothered a laugh.

"If you were in Melior, then why are you here in Goldoa now?" Elena asked.

"We... decided to take a trip." Mark said hesitantly. "Mother wanted to test Soren's theory on recharging her Dragonsphere, so she could transform again. It worked, actually! Then we decided to stick around in Goldoa anyway."

"You can transform?" Elena asked, her eyes sparkling. "Will you?"

Tiki laughed. "I'm afraid the city laws prohibit transforming within a certain radius of Beorc, dear. His Majesty doesn't want any, er... _racial incidents_, after all. But I'll be sure to show you someday, okay?"

Elena nodded. "Is Aunt Soren all right?" she asked worriedly. "He's awfully red."

Tiki poked the embarrassed sage and laughed. "Oh, your Auntie's just a bit shy." she said. "I'm sure he'll be feeling better soon..."

"Soren!" someone called loudly, and Soren felt his savior at hand.

"Ilyana!" he called back, turning around. His face pleaded, _Help me!_

The purple-haired girl ran to catch up with him. "The meeting's done." she said, apparently not reading Soren's expression. "Commander Ike said Nasir and Ena would show us the way to Gallia. We'll be leaving soon."

"You're the thunder sage, Ilyana?" Lucina asked.

Ilyana nodded, turning to the little girl. "Yes... and you must be the Manaketes, from Altea! Soren told me about you."

"And he spoke about you, once or twice." Tiki replied. "I'm Tiki. These are my children, Mark and Lucina."

Ilyana shook her hand. "Well met." Her stomach grumbled, and she blushed. "Er... would you happen to have any food, actually?"

Tiki smiled. "Soren mentioned that, too. Here." She offered the sage a sandwich she produced from her pocket.

Ilyana devoured it. "Thanks." she mumbled.

"Why do you eat so much, Ilyana?" Elena asked curiously.

"You know," the sage replied slowly, "I don' really know."

Soren grabbed her hand. "Well, we should be getting back to the Mercenaries!" he said hurriedly.

"Why are you in such a hurry, Aunt Soren?" Tiki asked mischievously.

Soren blushed even deeper(if that was possible), and Ilyana frowned. "Huh?" Lucina and Elena giggled again, while Mark just rolled his eyes.

"It should only take us a week or two to get back to Gallia." Ranulf assured Ike. "Maybe less. They'll be fine, I promise!"

"But it's already been several days!" Ike fretted. "What if they got lost in the caves...? They didn't have any food or anything..."

"Maybe they came out in Gallia." Titania suggested. "It seems possible."

"Maybe." Ike brightened, then his face fell again. "But they're all Beorc...! And Shinon hates laguz, and Deirdre's never met any other than Ranulf! They wouldn't be able to find any help..."

Ranulf put a hand on Ike's shoulder. "Trust in your husband." he said seriously. "He'll find a way."

Ike nodded wearily. "I hope so..."

_October 14__th__, 648._

Zelgius had decided that he and the other two would stick around in the village—Dyrtrae, it was called, too small to be noted on the map—and rest for a week or two before going for the capital. Hopefully, the Mercenaries would pass by and find them before then, but that was a fairly slim chance.

Alyx insisted on introducing Zelgius to a few of her friends, most of which had children who were in the Laguz Alliance Army. The female cat laguz was still pretty, looking to be maybe in her late twenties or mid-thirties, with dark brown hair and brown eyes. "Hi." she greeted Zelgius, offering her hand. "I'm Chrystia. It's good to meet you."

He shook her hand warmly. "Zelgius, of the Greil Mercenaries." he replied. "Alyx says you're visiting from up north."

She nodded. "We're from one of the northern villages, but I come down here occasionally to visit Alyx and sell my healing herbs. Some Cats think I'm silly for it, but it's convenient. I grow herbs, I sell them down here, nobody gets long-lasting injuries, and I get a vacation every once in a while."

"Very practical." Zelgius agreed. He studied her briefly and noticed she slightly resembled a certain Cat he'd seen. "This may sound strange, but...Are you related to a Cat named Ducessa, nicknamed Darkie, by any chance?"

She nodded eagerly. "My daughter. Have you seen her?"

"Yes." he assured her. "She's doing well. She protected my daughter from a group of Beorc-haters. Quite a girl you have."

"Yeah, she's a good cat." Chrystia agreed. "She grew up with several Beorc in our village, so she's not as badly prejudiced as some Cats I know."

"Indeed."

"So, how is she anyway?"

"Well, as I said. She's been noticed by Captain Ranulf. Last I heard he was calling her his protégé and training her to be a commander."

"Really?" Chrystia smiled brightly. "I'm glad she's applying herself. She's always been too hard on herself... Not that I'm bragging about her or anything," she added.

Zelgius smiled. "Don't worry about it. My husband is much the same about our daughter..."

Shinon wasn't quite as keen on meeting other laguz—he even avoided Alyx, if he could. He couldn't get out of bed for almost a week, and then he'd mostly went out by himself into the forest. Deirdre always wondered what he was doing, but she never quite got up the courage to follow him.

Today, however, Deirdre went out into the woods again.

She found Shinon sitting on a tree stump, whittling a long and curved stick with the Shadow's dagger. He must have borrowed it when she was elsewhere, she thought. He glanced up as she approached. "Got away from the sub—the laguz?" he asked, noticeably correcting himself.

She shrugged. "I was looking for you."

"Why?"

"Just... wondering what you were doing. You keep disappearing into the woods..."

He paused for a moment, then showed her what he was working on. "I'm making a bow."

Her eyes sparkled slightly. "I've always wondered how you made bows." she said, examining the bow-in-progress carefully. "Your bows are always the best."

"The Silencers, you mean? Yeah." He went back to the stick with the knife, then paused for a moment. "I could show you, if you want."

Her eyes shone brightly. "Really?"

"Yeah, sure." He smiled faintly. "Pull up a stump. I'll show you how it's done."

She sat down on the edge of the stump he was on. He scooted aside slightly to make room for her. They ended up being very close to each other, but neither of them minded.

"...and then you tie that off there, and you're done." Shinon said, a few hours of bow-making lessons later.

Deirdre did as he instructed and looked at her newly-made bow speculatively. "It's nowhere near as good as yours." she said.

"Eh, not bad for a first try." he said, taking it from her to look it over. "Rolf's first try was pretty much just a bent stick."

"But he makes bows so well now!" Deirdre said in surprise.

"Yeah, well, his first one was a stick. See, you're already better than him in something." He drew back the bowstring, testing it. "Rolf isn't a god, you know."

"He's your first apprentice."

"He's already learned almost everything I have to teach him." Shinon said, a hint of sadness in his voice. "He's not much of an 'apprentice' anymore. Hell, he's a man now, isn't he?"

"You still taught him everything he knows." she said comfortingly. "I'm just a deadbeat archer from a dead country with no skill at all. How can I compare?"

He whacked her lightly with the bow. "Ow!" she yelped. "What the—"

"I hate going through this. I went through the _exact_ same thing with Rolf!" he said, on the edge of anger. "He's _not_ all powerful and neither am I. The only reason _you_ don't seem as good as him is because you refuse to even look at your own skills and honestly compare them with experience! If you had as much practical experience in battle as Rolf or me, girl, you _would_ be as good as him—or me!"

She turned pink. "W-what? There's no way I could ever be as good as y—ow!"

He whacked her with the bow again. "Stop saying that! You could, girl, if you had as much actual battle experience! As it is, you just need to fight and practice. And then you'll be better than me even, see?"

Her blush deepened. "You really think so?"

"I know so! Goddess." He set the bow down and sighed. "Talking to you is like talking to Rolf all over again. Both of you look up to me too much."

"You're a good man to look up to." Deirdre told him.

Shinon scoffed. "Yeah. Right. Nobody else seems to think so."

"Well," the girl said defensively, "you might not appear as nice on the outside as Ike or Zelgius, but we all know that inside you're a good person!"

"Are you joking?" Shinon asked sarcastically. "Most of the Mercenaries hate me, and with good reason! I hate sub-humans, I drink too much, I swear too much, and I'm a terrible influence."

"No, you're not!" she insisted. "You're getting better about laguz, you don't drink and swear as much as you used to—that's what Rolf says, anyway—and you are _not_ that bad an influence!"

"Rolf said that? Hah. He was being nice. I can't do anything right except kill people."

"If you were that bad an influence, then Rolf wouldn't be such a good person!" Deirdre said decisively. "So there! You _have_ done something right!"

Shinon scoffed again. "Yeah. One thing. Add that to the countless wrong things I've done, which is the reason I don't have any friends. Plain and simple. That's why you _don't _want to be like me."

She started. "That's not true!"

"Yes it is!" he retorted. "We both know it, girl. None of the Mercenaries like me except for _maybe _Gatrie and Rolf, and even _they_ will leave eventually, and then what? I'll be alone... again. As usual. I should expect it... I even treat my best friend like dirt."

"You—you aren't alone! You must have family, somewhere."

"My father left my mother when I was little and she never wanted me." he said bluntly. "I don't have anybody."

"Did you forget?" Deirdre asked sadly. "I'm from Altea. I lost my parents, all four of my brothers, and almost every person I knew and loved. I'm alone, too, and it's worse because they loved me and now they're gone..."

"You still have the rest of those Alteans. You get along well." he said bitterly. "I swear and drink too much. People hate me."

"Oh, stop being such a—a—an emo!" she yelped, frustrated. That strange impulse to hug him washed over her again. She didn't hold it back this time, but instead wrapped her arms around Shinon warmly. She suddenly felt much better. "It doesn't have to be that way!" she said. "It really doesn't."

He stood up and set the bow aside, letting her arms slide off him, and then turned around to face her. "It doesn't?" he challenged.

She stood up and hugged him again. "You don't have to be alone. I'm alone too, and it hurts." She looked up at him and smiled. "Maybe we can keep each other company."

"And how long will it be before I lose you?" he asked quietly. "To that bastard Dark Link, or the war with Begnion?"

"We'll still have enough time to get to know each other." she replied softly.

"And if we both survive, what then? Watch each other leave again?"

"Of course not!" she chided. "I'll stay with you, I promise."

Shinon wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly, resting his head on top of hers. "Thanks, Deirdre." he mumbled. "Don't you dare tell anyone I said it, but—thank you."

She nodded slightly, stifling tears. "Of course, Sensei."

"Why do you keep calling me that?"

She sniffed. "I don't know. It...it's just..." _My brothers were sensei before you, Shinon... _she thought with a weak smile. _Now... you are the only sensei I have._

_October 16__th__, 648._

"Well, here you are." Nasir told Ike and the two cat laguz. "I think you know the way from here."

"Thanks, Nasir." Ranulf said. "You really saved us back there."

"It's the least we could do." Nasir replied. "You should go. Many of your wounded need immediate attention. Head back to Gallia at once, and tell the lion king what happened."

"All right..." Ike said reluctantly. "We'll see each other again? "

"I certainly hope so." Nasir replied. "You are one of our dearest friends."

"Take care, and be safe." Ena told them. "I hope your husband is all right... Farewell." Then she and Nasir left.

"Which reminds me," Ranulf suddenly said when the Dragons were gone. "I know of a village nearby, about two day's hike. We should stop there and see if anyone there has seen anything of Zelgius and the others."

"Good idea." Ike said. "I'll go with Elena and Rolf."

"I'll come." Ducessa said. "It'll be nice to take a break. You should come too, Captain."

"Alright." Ranulf shrugged. "I'll leave Lethe in charge. I could use a break too..."

Two days later, in the afternoon, the small group emerged out of the forest into the laguz village of Dyrtrae. The first Cat they ran into practically jumped on Ranulf. "Ranny!" the blue-haired Cat cried happily, hugging the Cat warmly. "I was hoping you'd visit!"

"Mom!" Ranulf said, surprised. "Ah—!" Ducessa smirked slightly.

A moment later another cat laguz woman appeared, approaching Ducessa with a bright smile. "Darkie! It's been a while!"

"Mom?" Ducessa asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I happened to be coming down for a visit." the Cat replied, smiling and giving her daughter a hug.

"Er—oh! Have you met Captain Ranulf?" Ducessa asked, gesturing to the blue-haired Cat as he pulled back from his mother.

"Is that you, Ranulf?" the woman asked, shaking Ranulf's hand. "I haven't seen you in almost a century! I'm Chrystia, Darkie's mother. Do you remember me? I used to come by when you were little."

"I remember! You always gave me a treat." Ranulf said fondly. "Darkie! This is my mom, Alyxaidra."

Alyx shook Ducessa's hand. "A pleasure! Zelgius tells me you're a good cat."

Ike started violently. "Zelgius!? You've seen him?!" he demanded.

"Er, Mom! This is Ike, commander of the Greil Mercenaries." Ranulf said quickly. "And Elena, his daughter, and Rolf, one of the Mercenaries."

"You're Zelgius' husband?" Alyx asked, turning to Ike. "He's told me about you."

"Where is he?!" Ike demanded anxiously.

"Around." the Cat replied. "Actually, he was just—"

"Ike?"

The Hero sidestepped her to run the twenty or so feet to his husband. "Zelgius!" He crashed into him and kissed him passionately.

Chrystia raised her eyebrows slightly. Ducessa just shrugged.

"I was so worried." Ike said, relieved. "I'm so glad you're alright!"

Zelgius pulled him closer and smiled affectionately. "I was more worried about you. What happened?"

"We came out in Goldoa." Ike told him. "We had to go down to the capital and get Dheginsea to allow us passage. Nasir and Ena showed us the way to Gallia. Where were you!?"

"We came into Gallia by accident..."

Elena suddenly caught up to them, squeezing in to hug Zelgius warmly. "Father!" she cried happily. He picked her up easily and she laughed.

"What about Shinon?" Rolf asked of Alyx. "Is he all right?"

"He's fine." Alyx assured him. "He was badly hurt when we found them, but he's alive. I think he's back at the house..."

"Come on, Rolf!" Ranulf said cheerfully. "I'll show you!" He jogged into the village, with Rolf right on his heels.

Shinon and Deirdre were talking just outside the house when Rolf practically tackled his mentor from behind. "Shinon!" he babbled helplessly, burying his face in the Sniper's back. "OhthanktheGoddessyourealive!"

"Rolf?!" Shinon asked, twisting around in surprise. "Where did you come from!?"

"Ranulf showed us the way here... we were looking for you... Iwassoworried!" Rolf started crying.

Shinon patted his head. "I told you before, Rolf... no crying."

Rolf kept crying anyway. "I'm just s-so glad y-you're ali-i-i-ve!" he sobbed happily.

Deirdre smiled knowingly. Shinon just rolled his eyes.

"...and then Alyxaidra found Deirdre in the woods, and she led her back to us." Zelgius finished, retelling the events of the previous week over dinner that evening. "Luna healed Shinon, and we decided to rest here, in the event that you might come looking for us."

"I'm really starting to hate this Dark Link person." Ranulf said. "What kind of bastard would torture someone like that!? It's sick!"

"I don't even quite understand what he wanted." Ducessa commented. "He wanted to know where Prince Marth is, right? If he bothered to figure out where Deirdre was, why didn't he spend that time finding out where the _Prince_ was?"

"The Shadow has never made much sense in his actions." Elwyn agreed. "Unlike most rulers I know of, he seems to decide everything on impulse."

"Not like no other rulers ever make impulsive decisions." Luna added. "But still, he never makes much sense."

"He's still a bastard!" Rolf said angrily. "How—how _dare_ he torture Shinon for something so _stupid!?_"

"I hate arrogant cowards like him." Shinon said bitterly. "They think they can do whatever they like because they have some sort of powerful position, but then they run away when confronted with a real fight."

"Like Izuka." Ranulf added, shuddering. "He's the only one I can think of who's worse than Dark Link."

"No." Deirdre said quietly. "Izuka was sick and twisted, from what you've told me, but he didn't destroy an entire continent for the sake of a mark on a hand...!" Ike and Zelgius exchanged glances.

"Why didn't you just tell him what he asked?" Elena asked innocently. "Or lie to him and direct him the wrong way?"

"That one... I don't understand his powers very well, but he can detect lies." Elwyn told her. "I saw him do it, once. Long time ago... He focused his hand and the mark flashed black when the lie was spoken."

"And he would have killed us anyway, once he got what he wanted." Shinon added, poking listlessly at his food. (The laguz were really the only ones still eating at this point.) "Holding out was her only choice."

"But he said he would leave you alone!" Elena insisted.

"He might have said that, El," Ike chided her gently, "but someone like that can't be trusted, especially after what he's done before."

"What I don't understand," Rolf interrupted, "is where he got all his powers! I mean, he's _obviously_ not a Beorc, but all his powers are so strange...! He can teleport you two a hundred feet underground, but he can't track a prince with the same mark as him—even when he's done it before! He can detect lies, yet he still needs to use torture to get information out of people!"

"Even one like him has limitations..." Elwyn began.

"...however few they may be." Luna finished.

"Very few." Deirdre agreed. "And how is it that Prince Marth doesn't have these powers, though he has the same mark?"

"Maybe it has something to do with the different pieces." Ike suggested. Everybody turned to him. "I mean, he said there were three shards of... whatever object this is he's looking for, according to what Elice told the other refugees." Ike explained. "And... both of them with the mark, Dark Link and Prince Marth—the triangle that glows is different on each one. Maybe the different 'shards' as he called them are actually individual objects, that add up to make one great one—the major triangle? And each piece has its own unique powers?"

"But that doesn't make sense either!" Ranulf said. "How could one shard have so much power and the other one so little?"

"The Prince may have just not unlocked his powers yet." Zelgius said. "Or perhaps the different shards have powers attaining to different uses. One shard may be more combat-oriented, for example, while another gives negotiating advantages—like the lie detecting."

"But if that were the case, the Shadow shouldn't have those powers." Elwyn reasoned.

"Unless he can draw on the powers because the Prince hasn't found them yet." Zelgius countered. "And when he does, then the powers return to their true owner, and Dark Link loses them."

"That would explain... why he can't track Prince Marth." Ike said quietly.

Ranulf looked at him and frowned in confusion. "What do you mean? Prince Marth unlocked the tracking powers, so Dark Link lost them? How would you know?"

"No." Ike replied. "_I_ unlocked the powers, so Dark Link lost them."

There was a long silence. "You?" Shinon finally asked.

Ike pulled off his right glove and showed the back of his hand. The black triple triangle was all too clear on it now. "I have the third shard." he told them. "I told Elincia about it, and she suggested I try and use the mark's powers. I had a vision of Prince Marth and Dark Link's locations. Maybe those powers are inherently the powers of this shard—_my_ shard—and thus, the Shadow lost them when I found them."

"Where did it come from?" Luna asked shakily.

"I don't know." Ike replied honestly. "It appeared there several months ago, shortly after the Ludveck rebellion—right before you and the other Alteans showed up, actually."

Ranulf suddenly snapped his fingers. "Of course! Remember, back in Crimea, when I came to recruit you?" he asked. "Your hand started hurting, for no reason! And you pulled your glove off, and there was _that!_ How'd I forget about that...?"

Ike nodded. "Yeah. I think that was due to the Shadow using his powers, and it affected me for some reason..."

"So if you can unlock powers and steal them from the Shadow," Zelgius reasoned, "try and use it again. See what you can do with it."

Ike nodded and closed his eyes, pressing on the mark. "The problem is," he said softly, "I don't know what its possibilities—or limits—are. Anything I try will be guesswork."

"Well... try and see the Shadow, and Prince Marth, like you did before." Elwyn suggested. "Maybe you'll get some sort of hint."

Ike nodded again and pressed on the bottom right triangle. Then, abruptly, he nearly fell over. He caught himself on the edge of the table and sat up again wearily, shuddering. "I'm never going to get used to that." he muttered.

Zelgius placed a hand over Ike's, covering the mark up. "What did you see?"

"The prince... was outside a city." he said softly. "There was... snow, all around. He had a red-headed knight with him... they appeared to be walking towards the city."

"Kester Cain." Deirdre breathed. "So they're still alive..."

"And... the Shadow?" Elwyn asked hesitantly.

"...He was in some sort of fortress in the mountains." Ike replied slowly. "With a black-red dragon that he rode as a mount. He had his sword and appeared to be concentrating on it... and the mark on his hand was burning gold all through. The sword's blade was completely black... he appeared to be focusing on it."

"Was there anything else...?" Zelgius asked.

Ike looked down at his hand. The bottom right triangle was faintly green-tinted. "I feel better than I have in ages." he said with a faint smile. "I'm not even hungry."

_"__...This isn't the way to Phoenicis! Damn... must've taken a wrong—"_

_"__Who are you?"_

_"__Gaah! ...Don't startle me like that!"_

_"__I apologize. How did you get in here?"_

_"__Eh... I was going through the mountains to Begnion and I... got lost. What is this place?"_

_"__Why...This is the stronghold of Dark Link of Hyrule..."_

_"__...Of all the frickin' luck..."_

_They're discovering their abilities too fast..._

_Damn Courage! He is teasing me... reclaiming the powers he should have had before, from where I bore them until he could take them back... why does he choose now to find them, of all times!?_

_The visions, the tracking... I still need them! The girl wouldn't talk... how will I find Wisdom and Courage now!?_

_Thank the gods, but he hasn't even begun to tap into his powers yet. I need more time...!_


	11. X

**~Chapter Ten**

_October 31__st__, 648._

They had said goodbye to Alyx, Chrystia, and the twins before returning to the Laguz Alliance Army. Then the Alliance had made its way up to the capital of Gallia, to plot their next move.

Meanwhile, Senator Valtome had petitioned Queen Elincia for passage through Crimea into Gallia. She had declined, but the Begnion Central Army had moved through the country anyway. A brief skirmish between Begnion and the Royal Knights had done hardly any good at all, as the Central Army—and the Ravens of Kilvas—had continued through Crimean lands towards Gallia. The armies of Gallia and Phoenicis had moved into Crimea to meet the advancing Begnions.

Queen Elincia was frustrated and tired.

"I tell them I want to remain neutral, yet they ignore me completely!" she said angrily, pounding her fist on the table to emphasize the point. "I tell them to stay out of my lands—they ignore me! Even the Laguz Alliance won't listen to me!"

"I know!" Roy said, extremely worked up. "What do they think they're doing!? They have no right!"

"And what with the possible threat of Hyrule's attack..." Lucia commented darkly. "Nothing seems to be going right!"

"I say, we march in there and _forcibly_ tell them to leave!" Roy said angrily. "_Order_ them, as Queen of Crimea, to get the _hell_ out of your land! Using more formal language, of course," he added when Lucia shot him a dark look.

"But they wouldn't listen to me before! Why would going down there change anything?" Elincia fretted. "They'd just ignore me again...!" She slumped in her chair, resting her head on the table in resignation.

"There must be something." Geoffrey suggested. "Some way of getting their attention..."

The four of them were silent for a long time.

Suddenly, Elincia sat upright and snapped her fingers. "That's it!"

"What?" Roy asked eagerly.

"I have an idea."

_November 4__th__, 648._

"This isn't going to be pretty." Ike said darkly, gripping his sword hilt tightly.

"I agree," Ranulf said. "What with all the mounting tension on both sides..."

"I can attest to that!" Ducessa said, clenching her fists. She was completely recovered from her previous leg injury, and she was ready to fight again. "This battle's going to start any second now...!"

"Soren, Mist, you'll be in charge of Elena when it starts." Zelgius ordered. "Make sure nothing happens to her."

The girl, now strong enough to fight(in Mia and Mist's opinions), had insisted earlier on allowing to at least _watch_ the battle this time. Her parents had complied, on the condition that she stayed well behind everyone else and let Soren and Mist command her actions. (So she wouldn't do anything stupid. She _was_ only eleven or some years old.)

Soren nodded, his grip tightening on his Elwind. "So long as she doesn't assault my hair in the middle of combat..." he muttered. Elena, holding the Steel Sword only slightly awkwardly, gave him a small glare. Mist just smiled faintly.

Ike and Ranulf walked forward to join Tibarn and Skrimir. "Are the troops ready, Ranulf?" Skrimir asked as the two joined them.

"Ready and eager for a fight, sir." the Cat replied. "Waiting for the order."

Tibarn was glaring at the army on the other side of the field. He briefly looked at Levail and muttered something dark about Naesala.

"King Tibarn!" Janaff suddenly said. "Look!" He pointed towards the overlooking hill.

They all followed his finger and started in surprise. "A Beorc army is approaching from the hill to the left!" Ranulf stated, bewildered. "That flag... It's the Crimean army!"

"Elincia?" Ike asked. "What are you doing..."

"Be careful." Geoffrey muttered.

"This plan calls for _not_ being careful." Elincia replied, smiling slightly. "But I'll... exercise caution, if I can."

Geoffrey sighed. "Good luck."

"We'll watch out for you," Roy added, fidgeting slightly on the white stallion he rode. "If you need help, we'll be there in an instant."

Elincia nodded, then kicked the sides of her pegasus and flew down to the field between the two armies. The boys sighed reluctantly, watching her every move with caution.

"Uwee hee hee. Finally, they see the light and are coming to fight with us!" Valtome said delightedly. "Excellent. Took them long enough. I suppose when you have the brain of a gnat, these things take some time to sink in."

Levail sighed inwardly. His acting second-in-command, a thin and sly-looking boy who called himself Kaj, fingered his silver dagger reflexively. "What is she doing here really...?" he muttered to himself.

"I am Queen Elincia of Crimea." Elincia called, facing the Laguz Alliance Army. "I have a message for the commanders of both armies! I am here to declare the will of Crimea and its people! Crimea has been ruled under the ideals of peace and equality since the reign of my father, King Ramon. As such, I cannot and will not allow you to spill blood upon our land! Therefore..."

She turned to face the Begnion Central Army. "I demand that both the Laguz Alliance and the Imperial Army leave Crimea at once!"

A murmur of surprise ran through both armies. "Withdraw our troops?! You foolish girl!" Valtome snarled. "We will not be ordered about by the proclamations of a peasant like you! Puppet rulers such as yourself should stay inside their pretty castles and play dress-up. Begnion's patience has worn out. After we finish slaughtering the sub-humans, we'll be coming for you in Melior."

"Commander of the Laguz Alliance. How do you respond?" Elincia called, turning back to the Alliance.

"...You have some serious guts, jumping into the middle of a battlefield all by yourself." Tibarn replied darkly. "But your high-and-mighty beliefs don't change the fact that Begnion must answer for its crimes. Step aside."

"...Very well. I've heard from both commanders." Elincia said quietly. "Then—" She drew Amiti and set it on the ground before her. "This is Crimea's answer. We will not sway from our ideas. My countrymen stand united. We will not use force. But we are willing to do whatever it takes to end this here and now."

Another murmur went through the troops.

"What?!" Valtome demanded in obvious shock. "Have you lost your mind?"

Tibarn flew forward to hover before Elincia. "Heh..."

The Crimean Queen remained silent.

Tibarn laughed suddenly and turned back to the Laguz Army. "Ike, I thought you were the craziest Beorc I'd ever met, but you have some serious competition! Crimea's queen is one tough woman..." He looked back to Elincia. "Your Majesty, I like your style! Skrimir! I can't let such a pretty woman down. Let's get out of here."

Skrimir nodded. "Of course. The beast tribe will not use our claws against unarmed Beorc. Soldiers, back to the forest!" The forward forces fell back.

"Thank you, King Tibarn." Elincia said with a faint smile.

This is only temporary." Tibarn warned her. "The war between the Laguz Alliance and Begnion isn't finished yet."

"Yes, I understand that." she replied. "Even so, I want you all to know where Crimea stands in this."

"...Hey, you and I should get together and chat sometime." Tibarn said cheerfully. "I'll be seeing you again soon." Then he flew back to rejoin the laguz.

Levail wasn't entirely sure what to do. One one hand, he had a good idea of what Senator Valtome was going to do. On the other, his sense of honor screamed at him to call off his forces. _What to do, what to do,_ he thought blankly.

"What are your orders, General?" Kaj asked him.

Levail tightened his grip on the Wishblade and tried to think. Every instinct within him wanted to retreat, but he knew that Valtome would have his head if he did.

He looked across the field. Beyond the disarmed Crimean Queen, he could see the laguz leaders having a quiet discussion.

With them was Commander Ike of the Greil Mercenaries—and General Zelgius. No—_just Zelgius, now,_ he corrected himself.

Almost as if he'd felt Levail's gaze, the former Begnion general turned to look across the field. His eyes met Levail's.

And he gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod. Levail's heart skipped a beat. _How does he know what I'm thinking!?_ he wondered, for he was sure the great General was thinking the same thing as he.

Maybe that's why. Zelgius was sure of it, too.

"General?" Kaj asked again.

"...We will withdraw." Levail said firmly. "That's my final decision."

Kaj paused for a moment, then nodded. "A good choice." Then he turned and signaled the Central Army. He and Levail turned to walk back as the forward forces retreated.

"Stop this instant!" Valtome shrieked. "Wait! Where do you think you're going?! Attack those mangy beasts!"

Levail turned back and met Zelgius' gaze again, for just a second. His resolve was strengthened, and he turned to Valtome with a fire in his eyes. "Please forgive my audacity." he informed the fuming man stoically. "However, we're withdrawing." He recalled something he'd heard General Zelgius had said, and quoted; "'Every battle ebbs and flows. To go against these tides is unwise.' Please understand, Senator."

"You self-righteous fool..." Valtome snarled. "You'll understand something else, once we're through with this battle." Levail merely ignored him as he and Kaj followed the Central Army's retreat.

"I don't want to go back yet..." Mist said quietly. "Do we have time to talk to Elincia?"

"It has been a long time since we last saw Queen Elincia." Titania agreed. "We should at least say hello."

"Sure, sounds great to me." Ranulf said. "There's probably not much time for small talk, but we'll see."

"It would be nice to finally meet her." Ducessa commented quietly. "You all speak so highly of her..."

Then that infuriating Senator shrieked to his forces, loud enough for the Greil Mercenaries to hear; "...Soldiers! Kill the queen of Crimea! That girl is a traitor to Begnion!"

"Whoa, this isn't good!" Ranulf yelped. "The Imperial Army is on the move. They're after Queen Elincia!"

"So much for imperial honor." Ike said darkly. "Greil Mercenaries! Looks like we have our old job back! Protect Queen Elincia!"

Up on the hill, Geoffrey sighed. Roy groaned. "I knew it!"

The knight commander nodded agreement. "Follow me, my knights!" he called. "We shall protect Her Majesty!" He drew the Brave Lance and the Royal Knights of Crimea thundered down the hill.

Surprisingly, Ike and Zelgius caught up to Elincia before Geoffrey, Roy, and the Knights. She had picked up her sword, but only to put it away again, and stood defenseless beside her pegasus as the Begnion warrior charged, his crossbow at the ready.

A gust of wind suddenly shot past her, crashing into the Begnion's front and knocking him backward. The soldier tried to fire, but a second gust of wind ripped the weapon from his hands and sent him crashing to the ground. She spun just as Ike joined her.

"Elincia!" he said quickly.

"Sir Ike!" she replied, surprised. And; "Sir Zelgius!" as the former Begnion general moved around them both to block Elincia from a crossbow bolt.

"I'm glad you're safe." Ike said, putting the Wind Edge away to draw Ettard. "That was one crazy move you pulled."

"It's what I had to do to stop the fighting." she replied. "However... my efforts have failed. I couldn't stop them."

Ike abruptly picked her up to push her onto her pegasus, causing her to yelp. "At least you made your point to the Laguz Alliance. I'm sure there are those in the Imperial Army who understand as well." he informed her. "You did the right thing."

She caught herself on her pegasus' reins and smiled faintly. "You're always so kind."

"Fly to the Knights." Zelgius told her, Silver Blade in hand as he spun to hack down a charging Begnion warrior. "We will take care of Begnion."

"Thank you, Sir Ike. Sir Zelgius." Elincia said, then wheeled her pegasus and spurred it into the air.

Ike stepped forward and stabbed past his husband's side to impale a Begnion soldier as Zelgius wheeled on a charging knight. "The archers could be a problem for fliers." Zelgius said, pointing out a squad of Begnion archers who were cautiously approaching the Crimean Royal Knights, protected in front by a squad of soldiers.

"I'll take them out, then." Ike replied. "You get the other soldiers."

Zelgius nodded and started for them, and Ike followed close behind.

"Levail!" Kaj called, running to join the young General. "Senator Valtome is about to run down the queen of Crimea!"

"That infuriating...!" Levail muttered. "Attacking an unarmed woman..."

"The Crimean army and a part of the Laguz Alliance have joined battle in order to rescue the queen. They are fighting Senator Valtome." Kaj reported. "Should we assist the senator?"

"Prepare to leave. We aren't fighting."

"...That would mean that we abandoned Duke Culbert's force..." Kaj muttered.

"I'll take all responsibility for this." Levail said decisively. "Make my command clear to all the men. I'll not accept more units joining this fight!"

Ducessa may have been small when she was reverted, but as soon as she felt well enough to transform into her Cat-Tiger hybrid form, she was practically unstoppable. Ranulf marveled as the purple-brown patched Cat plowed into the Begnion General, her powerful claws cutting clear through the crimson armor and her vicious fangs ripping a bloody wound in the General's shoulder as she flipped back again. Her sheer strength was marvelous for a simple Cat such as herself, and Ranulf seriously believed that, of all the Cats in the Laguz Alliance Army, he was probably the only one stronger than her. Well, and maybe Lethe. Ducessa was a far cry from Tiger strength, to be sure, but still...

He nearly lost focus on his own battle—a small group of Begnion warriors. Growling heartily, he flew into their midst, ripping armor and weapons apart with his claws. They fell easily to his vicious attacks, and as he finished them he paused for a moment.

Ducessa had finished off the General and flipped away again, allowing Ike to cut in front of her and take down a second General in a pair of hard sword swings. Then Zelgius was at his side, tearing down a third General with ease. He and his husband stood back-to-back, and the Begnion soldiers were reluctant to approach them. The blue Cat always enjoyed watching those two fight together, but now was not the time, as another group of Begnion warriors charged him. He growled and leapt forward.

The three Greil Mercenary archers were having a fairly easy time of it. Both Shinon and Rolf were good enough now to easily take down any of the Begnion Dragonmasters that approached them in either one or two shots. Rolf had invented a new move, something he called "Deadeye," where he threw his spinning arrow into the air, leapt after it, and shot down at his opponents. The spinning throw/jump/catch/shoot seemed unnecessary to Shinon—all he felt the need to do was twirl the arrow in his fingers before firing as a kind of flourish, occasionally—but he'd tried the move once or twice, and he had to admit, it was actually kind of... fun. _Not that fun has anything to do with Mercenary work,_ he reminded himself sternly.

It was really Deirdre he was worried about. She was far from the skill level of the two Marksmen, and most of the time she could only take down the ones who got lucky and escaped one of Shinon or Rolf's attacks—and those were rare. Other than those stragglers, she couldn't kill any of the Dragonmasters in _two_ shots, let alone one. She still showed the same promise that Shinon had seen in her before, but, the Marksman now realized, she hardly got the chance to shoot anything and actually _kill_ it. That was how she would learn, he knew. That was how _he_ had learned, but she wasn't getting much of a chance for it. _We're good, _he thought wryly. _Me 'n Rolf. We're _too _good._

With that thought in mind, he purposefully missed one of his shots against a Begnion Dragonmaster and watched in satisfaction as his sapphire-haired apprentice quickly brought it down.

Soren and Mist had remained true to their orders. They and their young watch, Elena, stayed in the back, far away from the main battle, on the southern part of the field—hiding in a clump of trees. Soren was officially bored, and Elena had yet to fight a single soldier.

Then he heard hoofbeats from the south and wheeled to see three paladins riding up from the south, through the trees. The horsemen started at the sight of the two young girls and the sage, their horses rearing in alarm.

Soren didn't even need to open his book and read the words; he'd had them memorized for years. Narrowing his eyes, he selected the nearest paladin as his target and began to chant the words of a spell. He let everything else around him fall out of focus, except for him and the paladin. An aura of magical wind built up around him, and he smiled in grim satisfaction as the spell came flooding through him. He raised his hand above his head, summoning the power around it, and then threw his hand forward at the paladin. Swirls of emerald wind descended upon his enemy, causing the man to shout in alarm and his horse to rear.

Soren wasn't done. Performing a quick spin to the left and raising his arm again, he launched another wave of emerald wind. This time, the magic-induced gale knocked the Begnion on the ground and sent his horse running. The fallen paladin tried to get up, but collapsed.

He let his focus return to normal and the aura around him to disappear. He glanced around and saw Mist dispatch one Begnion with two quick sword beams, the red energy slicing into the paladin and bringing him down. He still didn't quite understand why she didn't ride her pony, Damascus, any longer, but her excuse was that she was too big for him now. Soren certainly hadn't noticed it last time she rode the pony, but he figured he would let her decide for herself.

Then his attention fell to Elena. There was only one paladin left, and the girl attacked him with a familiar vigor, much like the first battle Soren had witnessed Commander Ike take part in. That same Commander's small daughter now swung upwards, the middle of her sword barely catching the rider in the side. The man yelped in pain and swung down at her with an axe, but she leapt back to dodge the swinging blade. Then she attacked again, stabbing upwards and running the sword's tip through a chink in the Begnion's armor. The man shouted, then yelped again as he tumbled from the saddle when Elena yanked back on the sword viciously, splattering her arms with blood. He barely had enough time to sit up before Elena, caught up in the heat of the moment, ran her sword through his heart.

Soren's eyes widened slightly as the girl drew the blade out again. She looked up and met his gaze, then looked down at herself and yelped. "Oh! Damn!"

She seemed totally unaffected by the fact that she had just killed someone. And... she had used a swear word, too. _Perhaps you aren't as innocent as you would have us believe,_ he thought, narrowing his eyes.

"Elena!" Mist yelped. "Where did that come from!?"

"What, the blood?" the small girl asked, nudging the dead soldier with her foot. "From this guy, I think."

"Not that! The word! Where did you hear that?!"

She shrugged. "Boyd used it some. Why?"

Mist fumed. "Don't say it again! Oh, Boyd is going to get it now...!"

Soren watched Elena's emotions carefully as she wiped her blade clean on the grass. She wasn't at all like Mist—the first time she had killed, she'd nearly had a nervous breakdown. And she had been years older than Elena... so why wasn't the Commander's daughter affected?

Maybe that was why. She was the adopted daughter of Commander Ike, Hero of the Mad King's War, and Zelgius, formerly the greatest Begnion general ever known. She'd seen them both come home with blood on them, knew where it came from... maybe she'd simply dulled herself to the emotions that had affected Mist so strongly.

_That would be a shame,_ he found himself thinking. _I... would like to think that Elena retained some innocence, for all the hardships she endured... so much like my own._

The Begnion forces that had remained to attack Elincia were surprisingly few in number, compared to what Ike knew they could have been. He silently thanked General Levail for falling back at the start.

The battle seemed won. Zelgius had taken out Valtome's commander, a bow paladin called Sergei or something. It all seemed too easy.

It was.

"Ike!" Titania shouted, riding to join her commander.

He and Ducessa, the Cat in her Reverted form, both looked up at her. "What?" Ike asked.

"There's an army coming, from the southeast! Their flag... I've never seen one like it before."

Ike frowned and turned in the direction she'd indicated. Then he gaped.

The advancing army was huge. Far bigger than the pathetic Begnion force left behind to take out Elincia, and at least as big as the entire Crimean army, probably bigger. The flags the army flew were black, with a single blood-red triangle marking them. Flying above the main army was a horde of dark shapes—the Ravens of Kilvas. The ranks of soldiers did not glint, and the soldiers appeared to be shorter than the average Beorc—were these even human?

Flying at the head of the army was a magnificent dragon, black all over, with red on the inside of its wings and edging its scales. It roared even as Ike watched, and as it turned slightly the commander saw it bore a rider.

The rider was Dark Link, King of Hyrule. The country that was currently at war with Crimea.

He heard Ducessa's sharp intake of breath. "What in..."

"The Shadow." Ike heard an angry voice say from behind him. He turned, and saw a red-haired boy, fifteen or so. He was smaller than average, wearing a blue cloak and tunic, and his blue eyes were blazing in fury. He held a bloodied Silver Sword in his right hand and a Fire tome was clutched in his left. "Murderer of Akaneia. What in the name of the Goddess is _he_ doing here!?"

Ike frowned in confusion. Ducessa helpfully supplied the name; "Prince Roy of Altea, right?" she asked.

The boy nodded, almost imperceptibly, and he gripped his sword tighter. "That bastard is _dead!_" he snarled, before storming towards the approaching Hyrulean army.

Ike put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "Wait! You can't face an entire army by yourself!"

Roy growled but stopped.

"(So, the Crimeans have engaged Begnion in their silly racial war.)" Dark Link mused quietly in the ancient tongue. "(I'm surprised the Queen would bother with such petty matters. I thought her better than that.)"

Shard growled his agreement. Dark Link patted the dragon and smiled darkly. "(We are close, my friend.)" he said quietly. "(If we succeed in capturing Prince Roy and Queen Elincia, it shan't be difficult to discover Wisdom's location.)"

Shard growled again, and the King of Hyrule raised a hand, a silent signal. King Naesala flew forward to join him. "What do you want, _oh_ _gracious_ _master?"_ he asked sarcastically.

"Save your humor, raven king." Dark Link snapped. "Give my commands to the soldiers. The Begnion soldiers are not to be harmed. Queen Elincia of Crimea and Prince Roy of Altea are to be captured, _alive, _and brought to me. Any other Crimean Knights and any who assist them are to be executed. As for Kilvas, you are to bring in any of the senior knights that you can. General Geoffrey, Lady Lucia, Commander Kieran, et cetera. If you cannot bring them alive, then bring me their bodies."

"Your wish is my command." Naesala told him darkly, then spun and flew down to the Hyrulean troops.

Dark Link flew forward to address the battling countries. "Heed my words, soldiers of the Laguz Alliance! I am Dark Link, King of Hyrule, and my only enemy here is the Crimean Army. I have no quarrel with the Laguz, and if you withdraw from the battlefield immediately, you will not be harmed. You will get no further warning!" Then he flew back to his army and gave the signal to attack.

"So that's it, then." Roy snarled. "He's come to kill us. And all of Crimea, just like Akaneia before..."

Ike didn't know exactly who Dark Link was or why he had decided to show up now, in the middle of Crimea and Begnion's battle, but his blood was up, his mark was resonating, and he wasn't about to back off and watch the battle play out. "Not on my watch." he said darkly. "Zelgius?"

His husband moved to join him. He knew exactly what Ike was thinking. "I'll call the rest of the Mercenaries." he said quietly. "And the others in our force."

"Crimea won't be going down without a fight." Ike agreed. "Don't worry, Prince. You and Elincia aren't alone."

Roy's grip on his sword tightened and he grinned wickedly. "Then let's take 'em down!"

Dark Link was only slightly surprised when the forces that had moved from the Laguz Alliance to assist Crimea didn't back down. "(They are so naïve.)" he told Shard quietly. "(But I have heard that their commander is a mere boy, so that is only to be expected. They shan't be much of a problem, eh?)" Shard grunted agreement.

Naesala flew to join him. "We've begun the attack." he reported quietly. "The Greil Mercenaries haven't retreated."

"Tell me about them." Dark Link said. "I understand you know their commander."

"Commander Ike. Yes, I knew him."

"What is his likely course of action for this battle?"

Naesala shrugged. "I really can't recall that much about him, Your Gracious Majesty."

"Save it, Raven. Just tell me; _can_ he defend Elincia, or can he not?"

"Most certainly."

"Very well. Perhaps he'll prove of some minor challenge... You may go."

Naesala Shifted and flew down to join the battle. Dark Link fingered his chin thoughtfully. "(Or perhaps we'll save the battle for another day.)"

Shard growled and jerked his head down, towards the combat below. The King nodded. "(Of course, my friend. Battle awaits us.)" Then he bent low and urged the dragon down.

The first Hyrulean soldier Ike engaged very well shocked him. The thing was not Beorc, or laguz, but a strange creature the likes of which Ike had never seen—green-skinned and stocky, with beady red eyes and a horned helmet, wielding a small sword. It howled some strange animal-like cry as it attacked the mercenary commander. Ike easily dodged and attacked back, and was vastly surprised when the thing dodged his attack. Frowning, he swung again; this time the creature was too slow, and it crumpled dead to the ground.

Roy beside him hacked down one. "What are these things?" Ike demanded.

"He calls them 'bulblins'." Roy replied grimly, hacking down another one with ease. "Nasty little things. They're the weakest of his soldiers, and also the most numerous."

Ike swung and cut down three at once with one massive swing. "They're certainly easier than the average Begnion!"

"They make up for it in numbers." the Altean prince informed him. "No matter how many of these things you kill, they_always_ come back."

"Then we have our work cut out for us." Ike commented as he cut down another three.

"Just pray that the Shadow doesn't attack." Roy said darkly. "Or we'll all be dead."

Zelgius had stayed back, rather than engaging the Hyrulean force. There was still the remaining Begnion force to deal with, and as Elincia and Geoffrey moved to counter the new threat, he dealt with the old one.

He found himself fighting with Commander Kieran, much to his surprise. He found this an excellent opportunity to witness the Crimean Knight's peculiar fighting style—which mostly involved a frantic rush, lots of yelling and hacking, and then another frantic rush to the next opponent. He wasn't refined in any of his actions; his entire combat was based on strength and speed. Occasionally, Zelgius wondered how his horse could possibly keep up with him.

A Begnion paladin attacked Kieran, and the knight went into another crazed charge, hacking wildly until his opponent went down. _Crude, but effective,_Zelgius mused as he almost casually took down another rushing Begnion warrior.

"He'll come for you." Geoffrey warned.

"I know." Elincia said darkly, gripping the hilt of Amiti all the tighter. "He'll come, and when he does, I'll see him pay for all the wrongs he's done."

"Elincia, you've heard what Roy said." Lucia said worriedly. "He can't be killed!"

"You should fly to safety." Geoffrey urged her. "Well take care of the fighting; you should get out—"

"No, Geoffrey!" she snapped. "I'm not a coward! If you're staying, then I'm staying too!"

Geoffrey bit his tongue and nodded stiffly. "...As you wish...your Majesty."

Dark Link was on a headhunt. His target; Queen Elincia of Crimea. He had given his soldiers orders, to be sure, but he wasn't about to trust in _their_ judgment; that was something that bulblins were certainly not known for. No; if the Crimean Queen was to be captured, he would rather that he did it himself—certainly not that raven Naesala, either. He didn't trust King Kilvas any farther than he could throw him, and he knew that the raven king wouldn't capture her if he could, if only to spite him.

He flew over the battlefield, his glowing eyes scanning for his target. He finally spotted her; she was surrounded by a group of Crimean Knights. He knew they couldn't hurt him permanently, though too many of their wounds would wear down his shields and tire him. He searched for an opening, but a protective screen of pegasus knights flew overhead, and there was no visible gap.

Then he saw something that diverted his attention from his immediate goal;

Zelgius. He was by himself, that red-haired knight he'd been fighting with earlier having fallen back to rejoin the protective screen around Elincia. Now, he was just fighting the few remaining Begnions on his side of the field.

"(What do you think, Shard?)" Dark Link asked. "(Shall we... indulge in the Senator's request?)"

The dragon growled and nodded. Dark Link smiled.

"(Very well. Fly, my friend. I desire a worthy opponent.)"

Shard roared and folded in his wings, shooting down like an arrow.

Zelgius barely had time to look up and dodge before the dragon landed with a mighty roar. Dark Link slid off its back and waved off the remaining Begnion soldiers. "This one is mine." the boy told them darkly. The soldiers nodded and backed off.

Zelgius leveled his sword at Dark Link. "This will hardly be a fair fight." he commented. "I can die, but you cannot be wounded."

"Ah, but I can be wearied to the point of retreat." Dark Link countered, drawing the blue-winged sword and pointing it to just touch the tip of Zelgius' blade. "Let us see if you can bring me to that point. I hear you were once the greatest general of all Begnion. Care to test that?"

"By all means. At your ready."

Then Dark Link shot forward, his sword an impossibly fast blur as he attacked in a flurry of blows. Zelgius blocked them all with lightning-fast reflexes, then spun about to attack back. He got in two swings before Dark Link leapt around again and launched another spinning flurry of vicious attacks, all aimed to kill. Zelgius' eyes narrowed as he parried the blows, and when Dark Link paused to spin back, he swept to knock the boy's feet out from under him.

Except that his feet were no longer there, and Dark Link was behind him, almost striking him before he could get his blade up to parry in time.

The Shadow snarled and rushed forward again, but this time Zelgius kicked him hard in the chest. The boy stumbled backwards, giving Zelgius the chance to go on his own attack sequence. He rained blow after blow down upon Dark Link, barely giving the Shadow a moment's respite between attacks, their blades sounding the constant ring of steel against steel.

Then Dark Link got a moment and rolled aside, spinning up behind Zelgius to hit him in the back. Zelgius only stumbled for a moment before spinning to face him again. They stared at each other for a moment, both breathing hard.

Then they rushed each other, and the real duel began.

Elincia was just starting to wonder if she should call a more forward advance when the first Ravens attacked. She heard a scream from overhead and looked up to see one of the pegasus knights being attacked by a raven laguz, the giant bird viciously ripping a gash along the girl's arm. Marcia shouted and flew to help her, but that only opened a gap in the defensive screen for more Ravens to get in.

Elincia kicked her pegasus hard and flew up, attacking the nearest Raven with two swift blows of Amiti. It shrieked and fell down, but there was another one right behind it.

Marcia's friend, Sharon, killed a Raven and fell back beside the Queen. "Be careful, your Majesty!" she yelped.

"I know what I'm doing!" Elincia shouted back, before streaking forward and cutting down another Raven as it dove to attack Marcia.

Geoffrey on the ground signaled the archers to fire. "Damn Kilvas." he muttered as a hail of arrows flew into the sky. Several Ravens came down, but there were still more behind them. Geoffrey drew his bow and fired, bringing one of the laguz down. He urged his horse forward, trying to get a clear shot around the pegasus knights.

_This is almost too easy,_ he thought as he shot another Raven down. _Surely King Kilvas realizes that this attack is suicide...?_

Then something hard slammed into him from the side, sending him flying off his horse. A wave of intense pain washed over his side, and he almost screamed.

Something kicked him hard in the bad side, and then he did scream. Something crashed into his head, and his vision went red.

Elincia heard Geoffrey's scream and her blood ran cold. She looked down beneath her and saw his horse, riderless, nervously pacing. She flew lower and searched frantically, and then she saw a blue form lying crumpled on the ground at the feet of Kieran's abandoned horse. Her heart skipped a beat. "Geoffrey!" she cried.

She landed in a rush and leapt off, running and falling to her knees beside him. His right side was covered in blood, and he had a horrible wound in his head, gushing blood down his face. "Geoffrey!" she cried again.

"Elincia... where are you!?" he gasped in pain. "I can't see... blood is in my eyes..."

She hurriedly pulled out her Mend staff, her hands shaking badly. "Stay with me, Geoffrey." she begged. "Stay with me!"

"I'll... be right... there..." he tried to say, but the last part came out as a gurgle when he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

She gripped the Mend staff tighter and called upon the innate magic channeled within. Blue light shone over Geoffrey's face.

When Kieran had seen Geoffrey flung from his horse, he'd nearly gone into a rage. Screaming wildly, his horse abandoned long ago for closer combat, he charged the huge blue-black raven that had sent his General down.

The Raven barely saw him coming, and yet easily dodged the first enraged attack. Kieran didn't slow, following up with seven more fast, powerful swings. The Raven flew around every single one of them.

Kieran paused, breathing hard, gritting his teeth and holding his Silver Axe at the ready. Then the Raven attacked him, and it came so blindingly fast that Kieran barely had time to register it before he was knocked backwards fifteen feet, slamming into Geoffrey's horse and nearly tripping it up. The animal whinnied in confusion and accidentally stepped on Kieran several times before getting away. The knight slowly got to his feet, trying hard to ignore the burning pain in his chest that was spreading across his body.

Then another, smaller Raven attacked him, knocking him down again, and he lost his grip on the axe. He searched desperately for it, but then the big Raven had grabbed him and knocked him flying again.

He landed on his right leg awkwardly and he heard a snap. Now he hurt too much to stand up... Still, he tried. He pushed himself to his knees, groaning in pain, but when he tried to put weight on his leg it was almost too much for him. He bit his tongue to keep from screaming and shoved himself upright, balancing heavily on his left leg.

"Goddess, you just don't know when to give up, do you?" he heard a dark voice ask. The red-haired knight forced himself to look up and found himself facing down the raven king himself, now reverted and looking at Kieran contemplatively.

"It almost seems a shame that I'll have to kill you." Naesala continued. "Believe me, I would rather not, but I haven't exactly been left with much choice."

Growling, Kieran tried to charge him. He barely walked three steps before his right leg gave out and he fell to his knees again with a weak cry of pain.

"I mean, Dark Link expects me to capture at least _one_ of you." Naesala continued, ignoring the battle going on around them. "Dead or alive, he said. I have the feeling dead would be more merciful. Or would you rather just give up and let me drag you off the field?"

"I... am a Knight... of Crimea." Kieran gasped, forcing himself to stand again. "I... will never... surrender!"

"Tch. As I thought.." The Raven cracked his knuckles. "You're so patriotic and brave... to the point of idiocy." Then he Shifted and flew forward in a rush. Kieran felt something hit him hard, and then he only knew darkness.

Lucia saw Naesala knock Kieran down. _First Geoffrey, now Kieran... how many will we lose today!?_ she thought angrily, brushing her sweat-soaked hair out of her face. _And how many Ravens will die before Naesala sees the futility of the attack?_

Then she saw the raven king turn, and she realized he was looking at Geoffrey. Her dear brother Geoffrey, and—and Queen Elincia, vulnerably huddled over his body...!

"No!" she cried, and before she knew what she was doing, she charged. Naesala barely had time to see her before her blade slammed into his wing, cutting a deep gash in the membranes and sending feathers flying. She backflipped away and landed in a crouch, her left hand touching the ground lightly to steady herself.

The raven king cawed and shot towards her, and she barely rolled aside in time. She came to her feet just in time to leap back from Naesala's second attack, his beak missing her chest by mere inches.

Lucia leapt forward again and swung upwards, but the Raven flew aside the blow and looped around, diving down at her from behind. She ducked and felt the rush of wind as the laguz swept just over her head. She stabbed upwards, hoping to impale a wing, but he was too fast and was already gone by the time her sword got up. She shot to her feet and, when the Raven came down on her again, charged straight back at him, yelling unintelligibly.

They collided, and Lucia felt powerful talons grip the blade of her Silver Sword, ripping it out of her hands. She fell to her knees and slid before the Raven could hit her. She pushed herself to her feet and drew her other sword, a Wind Edge, leveling it at him.

Naesala stared her down, and when she swung the sword and launched a line of wind at him, he spun to the side, narrowly dodging it. Then he charged her again, and this time Lucia couldn't dodge fast enough. He slammed into her, knocking all the breath out of her body, and sent her flying backwards a good fifteen feet, the sword flying from her hands. He went with her, and they tumbled around each other for a moment before landing. Lucia heard a crack when she hit the ground, and pain flared up in her chest. She guessed she'd broken her ribs.

She sat up for just a moment before the raven king, already reverted, grabbed her wrists and shoved her back down, pinning her to the ground. His clothes were soaked in red and his bloodied wings flexed painfully behind him, the wound Lucia had inflicted all too obvious. "Now listen, and listen very closely." he hissed as she twisted to get free. "I don't want to do this and I would leave you alone if I had the chance, but as it is that isn't an option at the moment."

"You expect me to believe that?" she snapped, struggling beneath him.

"Believe it or not, it's the truth." Naesala informed her. "Now; my orders are to capture some of the senior officers of the Knights, alive. I'd rather not but Dark Link will have my hide if I don't get at least _one_ prisoner, so now you have a choice. I could take Commander Kieran..." —he motioned his head towards the fallen knight— "...or I could take General Geoffrey... or I could take you. Which'll it be?"

She glanced the way he'd indicated, towards Kieran. The man was unconscious, lying in a pool of his own blood, probably from the wound that had been torn through his armor and chest. He was barely moving. She knew that Geoffrey had been much the same way, when Naesala struck him. And Elincia was with him still...

The answer seemed obvious. Neither of the others would survive the flight, and she would never condemn them like this anyway, so... "Me." she answered.

He nodded. "Good choice." Then he dragged her to her feet and took to the air, still holding her wrist. As soon as they were up a good ways, he released her arm and caught her by the waist instead, for better support. She had to wrap her arms around his neck to avoid hanging awkwardly, and her ribs hurt too much now to struggle more.

Several other Ravens surrounded Naesala to cover him as he flew out of the pegasus knights' range, high in the air. Lucia didn't dare loosen her hold; it was a long way down.

_And so I've been taken again,_ she thought bitterly. _Forgive me, my queen..._

Dark Link knew that he had found a true master of the blade. No other person he had ever fought had gotten him to this point of weariness—this point, where a wound inflicted on him was sure to remain for a while, and not simply close itself again. He had limits; when his strength failed, the worse one was revealed, and that was something he was eager to keep a secret.

He parried another series of attacks, then came back with his own flurry of blows. They weren't as fast as they'd been before, he knew; he also knew that Zelgius knew, and that was troublesome. _Perhaps it is time to end this,_ he thought.

Then his left hand burned, and his eyes widened in shock. He blocked Zelgius' attack, then shoved it back and stumbled away, looking at his hand in surprise.

_It is resonating...!_ he realized. _I... I am close...!_

"Well..." Dark Link said quietly. "This fight has gone on for quite a while, has it not?"

"Other matters to attend to?" Zelgius asked darkly. "Such as capturing the Queen, or Prince Roy?"  
Dark Link chuckled. "Well, you seem to know my plans rather well. Shall we continue this... _intriguing_ battle some other day?"

"I cannot allow you to take the Queen of Crimea." Zelgius stated, leveling his sword at Dark Link threateningly.

"Ah..." The Shadow laughed slightly. "I'm afraid that perhaps... that goal was a bit lofty at this time." He glanced back to look at his army. It was doing rather well against the Crimean Army, to be sure, but he could still tell that he was losing. "Another day, I shall win. For now... a retreat is necessary, I believe."

Zelgius didn't react at all. Dark Link turned back to him. "But then again... there is a certain... requirement... that I have yet to fulfill with my agreement with Begnion." the Shadow said. "I hope you don't take personal offense, Zelgius... I do wish we could finish this honorably, but I simply don't have the time."

Zelgius narrowed his eyes. Then he heard a vicious roar and spun to find the dragon standing above him, the powerful beast's mouth heating up. His eyes widened slightly and he quickly stepped to the side, barely dodging as a dripping wave of flame poured out of the beast's throat, incinerating the ground and lighting it on fire. The former general moved to attack the dragon, but it leapt back and snarled viciously.

Then Zelgius felt his right arm go numb. A wave of cold washed up him and he gasped. The Silver Blade's hilt slipped from his frozen fingers, and when he looked at his arm he found a wave of shining red magic had enveloped it entirely. It spread to his leg and the limb gave out, forcing him down to one knee.

He felt the cold touch of steel at his throat and looked up. The Shadow looked tired and was sweating profusely. His glove had been pulled off and the mark on his hand was pulsating with golden and red light. "You cheated." Zelgius stated, hardly surprised.

"It was... necessary." Dark Link replied through clenched teeth. He seemed to be trying very hard to remain upright, as if it were suddenly a conscious effort, and nearly dropped his sword. The red wave spread to Zelgius' other leg and he had to support himself with his left arm.

"Was it?" Zelgius challenged.

Dark Link nodded. "Yes...it was. I...would kill you now...but..." The crimson magic spread up Zelgius' arm, and now he collapsed. "There is...someone else...who desires that...pleasure. Goodbye...Zelgius."

Zelgius blankly saw the magic spread up and over his chest and heart. _Everything is so cold..._Then he felt a sharp pain in his throat, and he knew no more.

Ike and Roy had been fighting in almost the same place the entire time. The soldiers came on in such huge waves, they couldn't advance at all.

When suddenly, they heard a dragon's roar echo across the field. The bulblins stopped their attack, and appeared to be muttering amongst themselves. Ike paused his combat in confusion. "What happened?"

"That was the signal for a retreat." Roy said in relief. "I've heard it only once before. They're falling back...!"

Indeed, after only a few moments the bulblins turned and ran the way they'd come, in a more-or-less organized fashion. The Ravens overhead departed. All the Begnions had already been routed; in a few minutes, the battlefield was clear, except for the Mercenaries and the Crimean forces.

When Ike looked back at the close guard of Elincia, however, he saw that it was a mess. The pegasus knights were grounded and there were several loose horses... including, as it came running nervously out of the group, Geoffrey's. A chill ran down Ike's spine, and instead of walking he ran. Roy was right behind him.

Ike ran into Marcia first, bandaging a gash in her arm. "What happened?" he demanded.

"The Ravens." Marcia replied. "They sneaked around and attacked us out of nowhere!"

"Damn!" Roy swore. "They were probably going for Elincia. Is she all right?"

"Yes." she replied. "She's with General Geoffrey."

"Is _he_ alright?"

Marcia shook her head. "He's badly injured, close to death..."

"Where are they?" Roy asked.

"Pretty much somewhere in the middle of all this." She gestured towards the rest of the Knights.

Ike and Roy left her and passed through the knights. Most of them were wounded, though only a few of them were dead. Everybody had been accounted for, however... almost everybody.

They found Elincia huddled over Geoffrey, clutching a Mend staff and crying. Geoffrey was covered in blood and dangerously still.

"Elincia...!" Roy knelt down next to her. "Are you all right?"

"Geoffrey..." she whispered. "Geoffrey...! You mustn't die... I'll be all alone..."

Ike looked around and spotted Kieran, the red-headed knight crumpled beside a dead Raven. He hurried over to him and felt his pulse. It was there; faint, but alive. The wounds on his torso were more troubling.

"Geoffrey is alive, Elincia!" Roy assured her. "He's not going to die. Calm down!"

She took in a deep breath and shuddered, cradling Geoffrey's head in her lap. "I... I couldn't protect you... Why couldn't I protect you? Oh, Geoffrey... you almost died because of me..."

Ike pulled out his Vulnerary and lifted Kieran's head so he could pour the contents down the knight's throat. The knight coughed, barely able to swallow, then his head fell back again. _Why hasn't anybody else taken care of him?_ he wondered.

"I couldn't protect him!" Elincia wailed. "This is all my fault!"

Ike frowned and glanced up. "This is Dark Link's fault." he told her sternly. "No one else's."

The young queen choked down a sob and nodded. "I know... I know... but... oh, Goddess, what can I do...?!"

"Ike!" The commander looked up at Titania's voice and saw his deputy commander riding up to join him. "Have you seen Zelgius?"

"I thought he was with you!" Ike insisted, standing up quickly(though he was careful not to bump Kieran).

Titania swung off the horse. "I haven't seen him since the Hyrule Army arrived."

"Lady Lucia?" one pegasus knight, Marcia's friend Sharon, called in alarm. "Where's Lady Lucia!?"

Ike's blood ran cold. "Oh... Oh Ashera, not again..."

Zelgius woke up to darkness. It took him a moment to even realize he _was_ awake, but when he did, he wondered exactly _why_ it was so dark.

Everything that had happened before flooded to him in a rush. _How long have I been unconscious?_ he wondered. _At least... I don't feel so cold anymore._

He tried to move his hands and heard a _chink!_ They wouldn't come apart. _I must be bound in some fashion..._

Then he heard a tent flap being pushed aside and several heavy footsteps. A moment later, something was pulled off his head, and he blinked in the sudden light.

General Levail leaned over him, holding a torch. "Are you all right?" he asked, genuinely concerned.

Zelgius sat up and bit back a groan. He ached all over, especially his head. A quick look verified that his hands were, indeed, chained tightly in front of him. "Where am I?" he asked.

"In the main camp of the Begnion Central Army." Levail replied. "King Hyrule dropped you off after the battle yesterday, and Valtome ordered you... chained and blindfolded."

"...how long has it been?"

"The battle was yesterday."

"Why did Dark Link bring me here?"

"He... said it was 'according to the terms of the agreement' or something."

Zelgius looked around more fully and realized he was inside a tent—a supply tent, he guessed. His hands were securely chained to a stake in the ground, as were his legs. His armor was gone, and he was propped up against a couple supply boxes.

"Why are you here?" Zelgius asked flatly.

Levail backed up and averted his eyes. "I... wanted to meet you, in person. I never got the chance before... to meet the great General Zelgius. That was always my dream, when I was young."

"Well." Zelgius closed his eyes. "Here he is. A worthless, imprisoned mercenary."

"No!" Levail insisted. "You're not worthless. You're... not even a General anymore, but you're still the best fighter I've ever seen."

"Look where it got me."

"This is Valtome's fault." Levail spat. "Useless parasite. I think it was he who made the 'agreement' with King Hyrule to bring you here."

"Do you know what he plans?" Zelgius asked quietly.

Levail was silent for several long moments. "I think Valtome's going to execute you." he finally said. "For... resisting the Empire, desertion... I don't really know."

Zelgius let out a long breath. "I suspected as much. Though I certainly never deserted Begnion. I only renounced my peerage, as did Ike."

"Why does he hate you so much?" Levail asked. "Valtome, I mean."

"To tell the truth, I believe the entire Senate hates me." Zelgius sighed slightly. "When I was still a General in Begnion, I believe they disliked my... sense of honor. Then I renounced my land and titles and married a Crimean mercenary... which they most likely viewed as some sort of betrayal."

"But there's nothing wrong with that!" Levail protested. "Wouldn't they be happy that you were gone?"

Zelgius waited for a moment as Levail thought it through. "Well..." the young General finally admitted, "I suppose considering your skills, they really would rather have you on their side than anyone else's... and they would especially enjoy ordering you around in that situation, wouldn't they? Valtome's been like that with me almost the entire time. They probably considered your resignation insubordinate. I do remember standing guard at a few of their discussions—they did say some pretty... awful things about you."

"Gay insults." He stated it more than asked.

"Yes." Levail replied reluctantly.

Zelgius chuckled slightly. "They are petty fools who cannot even begin to understand. I almost pity them for their ignorance."

"...Valtome...is going to punish me, too." Levail mumbled. "For disobeying his orders and... not engaging in the battle. He insinuated it would be death, so I...I thought this would be my last chance to meet you."

"Ah." Zelgius sighed slightly. "I understand. When is the...punishment?"

"At dawn." Levail replied. "Less than an hour from now."

"I suppose I shan't have long to wait, then."

Levail sighed deeply and turned to leave.

"Thank you, Levail."

The young General started. "What?"

"For not engaging in the battle with Crimea. Thank you. If you had joined, the Queen would surely have been lost."

"...You're welcome, my lord. And... thank you, too. I'm glad to have finally... really met you." Then Levail left, taking the light with him.

Zelgius leaned back again and tested the chains. They were tight and secure, and he was too tired to test them any further. _I guess... this is going to be the end. For real. There's no Black Knight armor that's going to save you this time..._

"How can he _not _have been seen since _yesterday?_" Ike demanded.

"I'm sorry, Ike!" Titania insisted. "But he's gone! He must have been captured."

Ike swore and kicked an empty helmet on the ground. "They're going to kill him." he said bitterly. "If it was Begnion, then they're going to kill him. If it was Dark Link... then he's dead already."

"That's not true!" Titania protested. "They wouldn't kill a valuable hostage."

"Valtome would." Soren stated flatly. "That idiot would kill his horse if it gave him a dirty look, and then complain when he had to walk. Titania, Ike... Zelgius is gone."

Ike closed his eyes tightly. "I know... oh, Goddess..."

Valtome was vastly excited, though Kaj knew it was for the most wrong of reasons. He didn't understand exactly _what_ the Senator had against Zelgius—between it was Zelgius' being gay or his sense of honor that the Senate sorely lacked, Kaj couldn't decide—but the Senator had been looking forward to the "punishment" since Dark Link had dropped the paralyzed man at his feet the previous evening.

And of course, Levail was probably going to be punished, too. That was the one that hurt. Levail... Kaj considered him his friend... his death would be cruel, indeed, for he knew that was surely Valtome's plan. And as for Zelgius...

The former Begnion general came willingly, escorted by two nervous-looking soldiers. He had been stripped of his armor and his wrists and ankles were chained, only allowing him a slightly shuffling walk. Valtome practically giggled as Zelgius stopped to stand before him, and the two soldiers retreated. Levail, standing next to Kaj, clenched his fists and gritted his teeth.

"I shall now dispense punishment for desertion, betrayal, and resisting the Empire!" Valtome announced. To Kaj, all three of the accused crimes sounded ridiculous. What had the man done, other than fight for his friends? "Zelgius! Do you have anything to say? I would hear your pleas now."

"...As a prisoner of war, I expected no less." Zelgius replied flatly, staring Valtome down with a fire in his eyes. "I am ready."

"Quite an admirable sentiment." Valtome chuckled. "Though perhaps you should have thought of that before you deserted the Empire! Now, on your knees. It's time for your execution. Good-bye, Zelgius."

Zelgius fell to his knees, staring straight ahead all the while. He had already decided he wouldn't close his eyes to this...

Levail couldn't stand it any longer. "Senator!" he yelped, stepping forward. "I must ask you to reconsider! To execute a man of Zelgius' caliber, for no real crime or even a trial... It's madness! It's horrible!"

"Levail, are you questioning a senator?" Valtome demanded. "A senator holds the right to punish a prisoner however he sees fit! And don't forget that you're only awaiting your own punishment!"

Levail fumed, but fell silent again. Kaj gave his hand a quick reassuring squeeze, though the young Begnion general was too angry to be comforted much.

"...All right, I've waited long enough." Valtome snickered. "Your wait is over as well, Zelgius. Execute him!"

A General moved to stand beside Zelgius, holding a sword almost nervously. In fact, all the soldiers seemed nervous around Zelgius, as if he were about to spring up and attack them at any second. Though he had no intentions of doing so, as it wouldn't get him anywhere... and it would probably only make the death more painful. Zelgius was resigned to his fate.

"Don't worry, Zelgius. I'll make sure that your precious Mercenaries die quickly." Valtome assured him nastily. "Except for your... _husband._ He'll know pain before the end... Uwee hee hee!"

Zelgius gritted his teeth and remained silent. _This man could never hurt you, Ike... my brave Ike, my love, you are too strong for that. I hope you live...a long and happy life..._

The General raised his sword over Zelgius. When that blade fell, he knew he would be dead.

It didn't. Out of nowhere, an arrow slammed into the General, causing him to stumble backward in pain and lower the sword without touching Zelgius at all. Valtome shrieked.

"All soldiers loyal to Begnion are to stand down immediately!" a harsh feminine voice called.

Zelgius looked up in surprise. _I know that voice._

Levail and Kaj moved to Zelgius and the three of them backed up as a pegasi's wingbeats were heard. Moments later, a pegasus landed in front of Valtome, and its rider, a stern dark-haired woman, slid off. "Hello, Senator Valtome." she said coldly.

"You...!" Valtome hissed. "You're one of the Holy Guards!"

"The apostle will be here shortly!" Commander Tanith announced. "Soldiers, sheathe your weapons and kneel before the apostle!"

"What?! No... It's impossible!" Valtome muttered.

Then Zelgius heard more pegasus wingbeats, and he and Levail both looked up to see a legion of the Holy Guard flying down towards the central circle. He recognized Sigrun at the head, as well as her passenger...

Kaj offhandedly slid a wire into Zelgius' chains, quietly picking the locks while everybody was paying attention to the Apostle's arrival. Zelgius nodded to him gratefully, though he was surprised that Levail's second-in-command would know how to do that sort of thing.

The Holy Guard landed, and Apostle Sanaki slid off Sigrun's pegasus. "... My soldiers. I apologize for my sudden disappearance." she said, her voice echoing throughout the camp. A resounding cheer rang out amongst the men.

"I am here today to explain things, and to bring you news from home that is of the utmost importance." Sanaki announced loudly. "My soldiers, listen to me carefully. I never wished for this war." The men gasped. "It was started by those who wanted me dead. It was spurred on by their desire to rule Begnion for themselves. This war was the work of the senate!"

There was a collective gasp, then a lot of muttering amongst the soldiers. A few of them gave Valtome suspicious looks.

"...Lies! She lies!" Valtome shrieked. "Do not be tricked, proud soldiers of Begnion! She is not the true apostle!"

"Ah, I see." Sigrun said, smiling slyly and crossing her arms. "Then we are not the real Holy Guards? Is that what you are trying to say?"

"N-no!" Valtome realized he was losing, so he quickly tried to turn the situation in his favor. "This is a farce! You cannot trick us! You are using a fake apostle to disable the senate and take over Begnion! Men, we must act! That vile Sephiran is their leader! The fact that he's been put in chains is our proof!"

Zelgius growled, causing Levail and the Holy Guard to look at him in surprise. He didn't serve Sephiran any more, but he still considered him his friend, and he certainly wasn't going to idly listen to these ridiculous accusations...!

All of a sudden, Zelgius got his energy back. He stepped past Kaj and grabbed Valtome by the neck, easily lifting him one-handed into the air. Everybody started in alarm. Kaj's hand almost went to his dagger, but he resisted the urge this time. Valtome sputtered.

"...I will not allow you to disgrace my _friend's_ good name." Zelgius hissed. "One more syllable and I shall snap your neck, you pathetic, spineless degenerate." He let go, and Valtome fell to the ground in an undignified heap, gasping for breath.

Zelgius then turned to the slightly stunned Sanaki and nodded apologetically. "I apologize, milady Apostle. It needed to be said."

Sanaki suddenly laughed. "But of course, Sir Zelgius!" she agreed heartily, flashing a broad grin. "I couldn't have said it better myself!"

There was a pause, and then another, even louder resounding cheer rang out amongst the men. Zelgius smiled faintly. Apparently, Valtome wasn't any more popular now than he had been before. Valtome sputtered in disbelief, so Kaj kicked him. The boy briefly met Zelgius' gaze and grinned.

Levail stepped forward and knelt before Sanaki. "Apostle! I can't properly say how good it is to see you alive. We've been awaiting your return."

"Thank you, General Levail." Sanaki said. "We have much to discuss."

"Wait! The Apostle did _what!?_" Ike demanded.

"Showed up in the middle of Zelgius' execution and exposed the Senate's plot to undermine and usurp her." Titania reported happily. "She's taken control of most of the Central Army, except for the part that left due to the Senate's counter-claim that she's a fraud..."

"Zelgius is alive?!"

Titania realized then that, at the moment, Zelgius was all Ike really cared about. "Yes." she said, and he sighed deeply in relief. "He's with the Apostle still, I think. You'll probably see him in Melior."

Ike sat down in his chair and sighed again, slumping and closing his eyes. A moment later, Titania realized he was asleep. She smiled sympathetically. _He certainly needs his rest...  
_

_"__Fool... You had the knight commander in your grasp, yet instead you bring me this pathetic woman?"_

_"__The Queen and several soldiers were with him, I couldn't get there—and you _included_ her among the ones I was to capture!"_

_"__Listen, raven king, and listen closely. I do not take kindly to failure—something that you seem to bring me a little too much of..."_

_"__I succeeded back at Soze Pass, didn't I? ….Wait! No, please...Don't!"_

_"__I warned you of the consequences of failure, did I not?"_

_"__Just give me a second chance. Please!"_

_"__Your sentiment is admirable... but I cannot accept any further mistakes, raven king. You have one more chance. Do you understand me?"_

_"__Yes... I understand."_

_"__Still... there must be a consequence. You shall bear the pain for your people this time, King Kilvas. Are you still prepared to beg for their safety?"  
"...Yes. Do whatever you will with me... but don't hurt them, I beg of you."_

_"__So admirable... Very well. (Shard. You may begin.)"_

_"__uuhh..."_

_"__I hope this was a fitting lesson, Raven. Do not fail me again."_

_"__I...live...only to serve...my lord. I swear...I will...not...falter..."_


	12. XI

**~Chapter Eleven**

_November 10__th__, 648._

Elincia and Apostle Sanaki had arranged for a meeting in Melior with the kings of the Laguz Alliance, to discuss the new developments with Begnion and the Senate. Ike was surprisingly relaxed as they waited for the Apostle's arrival in Melior. That was Ranulf's opinion—at least, Ike was relaxed compared to the state he'd been in when they'd finally found Zelgius in Gallia, several weeks back. Ranulf supposed that this time, Ike knew that Zelgius was safe, while last time he hadn't even known if he was still alive...

"Captain?" Ducessa nudged him gently. "You still with us?"

Ranulf shook his head quickly to clear his thoughts. "Er, yes! What is it?"

"Apostle Sanaki is arriving." she reported, gesturing out the window of the storage room.

The blue Cat glanced outside and indeed saw the Holy Guard coming down to land in the courtyard, where Elincia, Geoffrey, and Ike were waiting. To his faint surprise, Haar was flying beside Commander Sigrun—though his surprise didn't last long, as Zelgius slid off the black wyvern's back, at the same time as Sanaki and Sigrun dismounted the pegasus.

He watched as Ike stepped forward to embrace his husband warmly, and smiled. "How is it that those two keep getting split up recently?" he wondered aloud.

"Bad luck?" Ducessa suggested.

Ranulf shrugged. "I suppose." He continued watching as the Apostle, Elincia, and Geoffrey went inside. Ike and Zelgius stayed for a bit longer, still holding each other and apparently talking quietly. Sigrun asked them something, and Ike replied. "Say," the Cat suddenly asked, "where's Elena? I haven't seen her since right after the battle with Hyrule."

"I think she, Mist, and Titania went back to the Mercenary's Fort to pick up a few things." Ducessa replied. "They'll be back tomorrow... funny, actually, but I don't think Elena ever knew that Zelgius' life was in danger."

"She's only twelve." Ranulf reasoned. "Or was it eleven?"

"Nobody knows." Ducessa shrugged, then turned. "Well, I'll just be—" She stubbed her foot on a box and bit back a curse. "Ow!"

"Careful." Ranulf warned, a little too late. "There's a lot of stuff in here."

"I noticed," she replied through gritted teeth, stepping around the box to leave. Ranulf bumped into an old lance and it fell on her tail, causing her to yelp. "Ahh! Ow!"

"Sorry!" Ranulf said quickly, spinning around to remove the lance from her tail. "Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry—"

"Be careful!" she chided, grabbing her tail to keep it clear of falling objects. She nearly stubbed her foot again and almost swore. "Why are you in here, anyway?"  
"I was trying to find a Satori Sign for Skrimir." Ranulf replied, opening another box. It was filled with broken pieces of staves; he sighed and closed it again. "Where did all this junk come from, anyway? Why would the Crimeans keep all this stuff?"

"Beats me." Ducessa stumbled to the door and knocked a book out of the bookshelf. "Oh! I'll put this—" She picked up the book and started violently, nearly tripping again.

Ranulf blinked twice. "What!? What happened?"

"Look!" she yelped, turning the book to show him the cover.

There, covered in dust and only partially worn away by age, was the _exact_ same symbol that they had seen on Ike's hand. The triple triangle.

Ranulf made his way over, careful not to knock anything else over. "What book is it?"

She flipped it open and frowned. "Oh, darn—most of the pages have been ripped out. And the writing must've gotten wet—it's too blurry to read anymore."

"Hmm..." Ranulf took the book from her gently and flipped through it. There were a few pictures in the pages that were left, depicting various symbols he recognized from old Begnion scripture he'd read(a _really_long time ago, when he was so bored he couldn't think of anything else to do). "These look like Ashera holy symbols." he commented. "Was that some sort of religious mark...?"

Lucia was somewhere very dark. She could tell that even through the torn cloth they'd tied over her eyes, though she couldn't imagine exactly _where_ she was. She'd lost all the feeling in her hands a long time ago and she couldn't move her legs at all. The dull ache from her broken ribs hadn't faded away, either. She wondered why this always happened to _her. Why am _I _always the one that gets captured? Better I than Geoffrey or Elincia, but still...!_

She heard a tent flap opening and a few sluggish footsteps. Then her blindfold was roughly pulled off and she blinked, finding herself looking at King Naesala.

_By Ashera, what happened to him?_ His face and chest were bruised all over, he had a long angry red slash from just above the corner of his left eyebrow to the edge of his mouth, and his left eye was covered with a makeshift eyepatch. His wings were bloodied and his right arm sleeve torn off, revealing a series of bloody cuts and scars all down the forearm.

"Having a good day, Lady Lucia?" he asked, sitting down next to her, neglecting to remove her gag. "King Hyrule wanted your brother," he added when she eyed him in surprise. "I got the... punishment for failure."

She averted her eyes, and he laughed slightly. "Strange. You get captured twice in one year, and the second time we didn't even want you... Though I have the feeling that either of the others would be dead by now, if I'd taken them instead. Dark Link wouldn't have even bothered to see them healed."

She looked back at him. Her eyes asked, _Why are you here?_

"Dark Link needed a prisoner to levy information from the Queen." he explained. "So now he has to send Elincia some sort of threat, I suppose. He would have sent your hair, but as you can see, that's already mostly gone."

Her heart panged. _Uh oh._

"Oh, don't worry." he quickly said reassuringly. "He doesn't plan on killing you yet... though he does want to send a threat, small as it is."

Her eyes widened in alarm as he untied her gag. "What does he want?" she demanded as soon as it was off.

He laughed slightly. "Just a little blood. Not what I think you were thinking of.

She sighed in relief, then looked at him suspiciously. "Why?" she asked.

Naesala glanced away. "I don't question the orders of Dark Link." he said flatly. "I just follow them."  
"I don't understand," Lucia said, frowning. "I thought you'd allied with him."

"Ally?" Naesala laughed. "I'm his slave, milady, though you'd better not tell him I said that. I have no choice but to follow his command."

"How can you be a slave when you're a king of a country?"

He sighed. "That _is_ why I'm a slave, milady. But I can't say any more. So... what'll it be?"

"But you—but _Dark Link_ already made a show of force." Lucia reasoned. "Is the intimidation factor really necessary?"

"His Majesty doesn't like taking chances."

"Does he plan to kill me?"

He paused. "...If she refuses to cooperate...yes." he finally said.

She groaned slightly. "What's the point of holding me hostage, then? She won't give in—she didn't before, she wouldn't now."

"He figures this matter is trivial enough for her to agree. Maybe."

"She won't, you know."

"Then you'll die. Knowing Dark Link, he'll force it to be from my hand."

"...If that's the case, then I would understand, I think."

"Ah... thank you, Lucia."

_"__It's like she said. If the queen didn't back down when faced with Lucia's death before, why would she do any different now?"_

_"__Well, if you had gotten me the knight commander..."_

_"__Work with what you have, Your Majesty."_

_"__And from what I have, you're telling me I should just kill the girl."_

_"__No..."_

_"__Why shouldn't I, if she cannot be used to convince Queen Crimea?"_

_"__I...could...try to get information out of her."_

_"__Nothing would ever come of it. You may as well kill her and get it over with... unless you believe the Crimean Queen can be reasoned with?"_

_"__..."_

_"__Choose, raven king. Shall she live for now, to be used to levy information from the queen, unless the Crimean refuses, in which case she shall die? Or kill her now, and save her the torment and us the trouble?"_

_"__...That isn't a choice at all."_

"How'd it go?" Ike asked when Elincia left the meeting with the Apostle and the laguz.

"We've made an alliance with the Apostle." she replied. "The laguz kings and I will support her to reclaim Begnion."

"And you are a part of this alliance?" Zelgius asked.

Elincia nodded.

"Is that wise? You saw what Dark Link is capable of. Can you spare any soldiers to send with the Apostle?"

"I can't spare many." Elincia replied softly. "But I will help the Apostle. I'm sending a platoon of the Crimean Royal Knights, led by Second Commander Kieran, if he's recovered by then. And I'll send supplies and reinforcements, as soon as I can spare them."

"Which I still haven't thanked you for." Tibarn added from behind her. "We can probably handle it by ourselves. It isn't necessary."

"You never know." Elincia told him honestly. "Something may come up."

"The same logic applies to you, your Majesty." Zelgius reasoned. "Dark Link may not have attacked with the full extent of his powers..."

"I do what I can." she said darkly. "And I'll not abandon my friends."

"It is your choice, your Majesty."

"So, it sounds like everyone is on the same side now. That's the best news I've heard in a long time." Ike commented cheerily when the Apostle came to greet him.

Her expression was stern. "I feel the same, but it's too early to celebrate. I will not be happy until I take back my country. How we fare in the battles to come will be of the utmost importance."

"The Greil Mercenaries would be glad to help. I know that we're a small unit, but we'll do our best to see the job done right." the Hero told her.

"I certainly hope you will." She smiled slyly. "Especially since I've decided to make you the commander of our combined forces."

Ike started. "Wait, hold on there! What did you say?! Listen, Apostle Sanaki, I'm really flattered, but I'm sure—uh—General Levail is much more qual—"

She scoffed, interrupting him. "Levail is a good man, Ike, and a decent commander, but he is only more qualified than you by his official rank. In fact, the only person I would consider more qualified for this than you is your husband, which would in turn lead back to you again anyway."

"She has a point there." Ranulf added.

"Our army consists of at least half the Begnion Central Army, as well as the armies of Crimea, Gallia, and Phoenicis. You're probably the only person on the face of Tellius who commands respect from all four countries represented here." Sanaki stated.

"Ike, I know you're not happy about this, but you're the only person who can bridge the rift between the laguz and Beorc." the Cat reasoned.

"No, I'm not happy about it." Ike said, slightly annoyed. "I thought my days of being a general ended three years ago. But I won't refuse. If you think I'm the only person who can pull this off, then I'll do my best not to let you down. My only condition is that Zelgius directly commands them with me."

"Of course. Thank you, Ike." Sanaki said. "Let us go meet with the armies and the soldiers you will be leading. They will want to meet their new commander."

Sanaki and Ranulf left. Ike stood there for a long moment. "Not again..."

"How are you feeling?" Marcia asked quietly.

"What, this?" Kieran smacked the bandage on his chest and scoffed, though he did wince noticeably. "Hah! Why, this is nothing, compared to the wounds I got doing battle with the Terrible Beast of—"

"Kieran! Please, give me a straight answer for once!" Marcia demanded. "You broke your leg! I'm surprised you're even standing!"

"A mere broken leg won't stop me!" Kieran announced proudly, ignoring the fact that his right leg was in a splint and he wasn't supposed to be out of bed anyway. "It hurts no less than the wounds I sustained at the Battle of—"

"Kieran." Marcia groaned. "Honest answer, and I don't care if I'm a lower rank than you! It's an order!"

The red-headed knight paused for a long moment. "It hurts." he finally said, sitting back down on his bed abruptly. "And I doubt I'd be able to run on this. I'll have to stay on Finn for a while."

"Well, that's probably a good thing." she chided, sitting down next to him. "Then he won't step on General Geoffrey..."

"Right! I still must speak to him about that!" Kieran announced, suddenly standing up again. "A horse has no right to kick his general in the head! It's downright insubordinate, and I shall have to—"

"Oh, sit down, you silly boy." Marcia laughed and pulled Kieran down again. "_I'll_ speak to Finn, okay? _You_ aren't supposed to even be standing up yet!"

"If I can, then I will!" he declared proudly. "I'll not lie around like a useless lump because of a mere injury like—_ow!_"

Marcia poked him again in the ribs. "You'll stay in bed because you're injured and you won't be able to fight at all if you don't get some rest." she instructed him. "And if you try and get out of bed again, I'll tie you down."

"Hah! I'd like to see you try, woman!" He stood up again.

Marcia stood up and almost tackled him, pushing him down on the bed again and sitting on his stomach. "Right, that's it!" She looked around for a rope of some sort.

He struggled under her. "Dastardly trick!" he screeched. "I'll have my revenge for this!"

She laughed and kissed him lightly on the forehead. "Ridiculous boy." she said, smiling fondly.

"Get off!"

"Not a chance."

"Marcia." Oscar said politely when the tired-looking pegasus knight came to see him.

"Oscar." she replied, not meeting his eyes.

"How's Kieran?" the green-haired knight asked.

"He's alive." She laughed nervously. "It's a small relief, but he'll be well enough to fight in a couple days. I had to tie him to the bed before he'd calm down... Queen Elincia's sending him with the Apostle's army, so I suppose you'll be seeing more of him, too. And Makalov..."

"I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing." Oscar joked. "At least you're staying behind, or he'd probably go ballistic..."

"I wish I was going with you." she blurted. "I mean, I know that some of us have to stay behind, in case Dark Link attacks, but... I don't want you to leave! I'll be... all alone..."

He took her hand gently and smiled. "Don't worry, Marcia. I'll be careful... and I'll keep an eye on Kieran and Makalov, too. It's better that you stay behind and protect the queen, no?"

"Geoffrey can protect the queen." she said bitterly. "Sharon can protect the queen. Couldn't the queen do with one less pegasus knight to protect her?!"

Oscar kissed her lightly on the forehead, brushing her hair aside. His touch was warm and comforting. "Marcia... why are you so scared? We've been through a war before."

"I don't want to die." she mumbled. "I don't want you to die, Oscar. Or Kieran, or Makalov. Dark Link... he's allied with the Begnion Senate, isn't he? I'm... frightened of him. I think he's capable of anything. Even destroying an entire army, and everyone within it..." She sniffed audibly and wiped a tear from her eyes.

Oscar pulled her into a warm hug. "Marcia..." he said gently. "I promise you, we won't leave you alone. I... I'll never leave you alone. I promise!"

She burst into tears and hugged him back.

Ranulf was going through his "to-do" list for the evening. So far, it read as; _Eat dinner, Find Ducessa, Get some late practice with Ike, Give Skrimir his Satori Sign,_ and _Sleep._ So far, he had _Late practice_ and _Satori Sign_ crossed off, and was having doubts about ever completing the last one. He wondered where Ducessa had gone—he was planning on giving her a lesson in report writing, aka give his writing hand a break and dictate his report to her instead.

Just then, said Cat walked into Ranulf's room, smiling slyly. "Someone here to see you, Captain."

A moment later a slightly blue-ish blur dashed past the girl and tackled the blue Cat. "Ranny!" it cried, hugging him warmly and knocking him over from the force of the tackle.

"What the—Mom!? What are you doing here?!" Ranulf demanded.

Alyxaidra sat back and grinned. "I couldn't let my boy go defeat Begnion all by himself, now could I?" she asked cheerily. "I ran into that delightful deputy commander of the Greil Mercenaries just as she and the other girls were leaving the Mercenary Fort. I came with them."

"Why were you in Crimea near the Mercenary Fort!?"

"I was escorting a couple friends. Oh, Chrystia's taking care of the house." she added. "She was planning on taking a long vacation anyway!"

"Well... er... nice seein' ya, Mom, so how long are you staying?" he asked quickly.

"I'm coming with you!" she replied incredulously. "What, you thought I'd stay behind for this!? I'm not _that_ old!" She immediately began going around his room, looking through the few things he had and putting them away. "Oh, Ranny, your room is a _mess..._" she mumbled to herself. "And when was the last time you took a bath?"

"_Mom!"_

"Oh, well, you need a bath and you know it! Even a Cat's gotta get a proper wash sometimes! Your tongue just doesn't cut it!"

Ranulf looked to Ducessa helplessly. She grinned wickedly. "I'll leave you two, then." she said, sweeping out of the room.

Ranulf sighed, picked up his to-do list, and crossed off _Find Ducessa._

"Are you sure, Sensei?" Deirdre asked worriedly, fingering the beautiful Silencer that she held. "I mean... I don't know if I'm good enough to use it..."

"Deirdre," Shinon warned her, "you know we've talked about this little self-esteem problem you have. If you can pull back the bowstring, then you're good enough to use it."

She sighed. "But... Rolf could probably use it more than me..."

"Rolf made his own bow." the Marksman said firmly. "This one is for you."

She smiled faintly and drew back the bowstring, to test it. She could instantly feel the strength in the wood, like she had when he had previously allowed her to try out his own personal Silencer. "Thanks." she said softly. "I'll treasure it."

"Don't treasure it, _use_ it." he corrected her. She released the bowstring and laughed.

Shinon paused for a long moment. "You know... I don't think I've ever heard you laugh before." he finally said.

She looked him eye-to-eye and smiled. "It's been a while. ...Feels good."

They stared at each other for another long moment, before they were interrupted.

"Deirdre!" a familiar voice called cheerily, as two familiar red-heads poked their heads around the slightly ajar door. "Shinon!"

"What the—Luna? Elwyn?" Deirdre asked incredulously, spinning to face them.

The woman nodded and stepped inside, her sister right beside her. For the first time in months, Luna was wearing her Priest's robe, and Elwyn was dressed in her old clothes—the green cloak and gloves, and the turquoise dress, that she'd been wearing when the Sea Cat first appeared off the coast of Tellius. That surprised Deirdre—she'd thought all their old clothes had been thrown out.

"What are you two doing here?" Shinon asked.

"We heard about Dark Link and we decided we couldn't just hang around in Gallia any longer." Elwyn replied, crossing her arms and smiling faintly. "We came with Alyxaidra."

"But Elwyn..." Deirdre said, frowning slightly. "Princess Elice's plan was to split up, and now too many of us are coming together...! Me, you two, Roy..."

"We figured that the plan was scrapped as soon as Dark Link blatantly assaulted Crimea." Elwyn replied. "Even before that, we'd been having doubts. I think it's time the Alteans began to rejoin. We're stronger as a group, after all."

"Well." Shinon said, crossing his arms. "Can you two fight?"

"I know Light tomes as well as staves, and Elwyn's a caster of Wind magic." Luna said. "We're probably not on par with the famous Greil Mercenaries, but I think we'll catch up."

"We'll see about that."

Lucia was half-dozing when she heard the tent flap opening again. She opened one eye and Naesala blurred into view. "Yes?" she asked, quickly opening the other eye as well.

"Dark Link's finally agreed with me." Naesala said, sitting down next to her with a small sigh. "He's decided not to get rid of you yet... though the future is unclear."

She eyed him and noticed the purple bruise on his cheek had gotten slightly bigger. "Thank you." she said gently. "It couldn't have been easy to persuade him."

The Raven chuckled. "You can say that again. That dragon of his is a nasty piece of work."

"Dragon?" she asked, confused.

Naesala gestured to the scar and the eyepatch. "This is from him. Dark Link doesn't do the dirty work himself, he leaves it to his pet." he spat.

"I'm... sorry." she said, slightly unsettled.

He laughed and leaned back against the box next to hers. "Ah, don't mind me... I'm just moping."

"How can he control you like this?" Lucia asked. "You called yourself his slave... how could he have brought you to that point?"

"I have no choice." Naesala replied bitterly. "My life isn't as important as all the ones I'm trying to save."

"...Does he hold someone captive? Someone you care for?" Lucia asked.

The raven king eyed her and nodded. "Yes, he does, but that's not quite how he controls me."

She caught his gaze and held it. "What do you mean?"

"I fight for my country. If I don't fight... my country will die. That is why I cannot falter, not now anyway."

"Why not?" she challenged. "Why will Kilvas fall?"

"Ah..." He turned ever so slightly red, a flush of color on his otherwise pale and bruised face. "Oops. I don't usually slip like that."

"But why?" she pressed. "What power could he hold over Kilvas?"

"Enough to destroy us with a whim." he honestly replied. "...I apologize that you're here, Lucia, but now you're all tangled up in this, aren't you? And it's my fault, too..." He sighed and held his head in his hands, laughing weakly. "Goddess, but I've ruined everything, haven't I?"

"That's not true..." she murmured faintly.

"It isn't?" he challenged. "If it weren't for me, the Laguz Alliance would be in Begnion right now. If it weren't for me, your brother would never have been hurt. If it weren't for me... you wouldn't be here right now, listening to me say this. And if it weren't for me...ah, but that's a secret I'll have to keep for a while longer."

"What secret?"

"That's why it's a secret, milady. I'm sure you understand. You yourself have many secrets."

"And you have many more. Perhaps... I'll get to hear them from you someday."

"Hnnh... That is a day I pray for, milady. A day when nobody needs to keep their secrets anymore..."

_"What do you have for me, Jak?"_

_"Gallia, Phoenicis, and Crimea have allied themselves with the Apostle. They're marching for Begnion to reclaim it for her."_

_"Queen Elincia is sending her soldiers with the Apostle..?"_

_"Only one platoon, led by Commander Kieran. The rest are staying in Melior."_

_"Who commands this 'Apostle's Army'?"_

_"Who else? Ike."_

_"Hmm. I should've known. Anything else?"_

_"Zelgius lives yet. He commands the army with Ike. That's about it... What'll you tell King Hyrule?"_

_"Him? Hah! If he asks, I'll tell him the Apostle's formed an army to march for Begnion, and nothing more. What else need he know? It doesn't concern him, after all..."_

_"Excellent. I'll be going, then...?"_

_"Of course, Jak—or should I call you Kaj? Good luck."_

_"Hello, lad. You don't look like you're from around here..."_

_"Let's save conversation for times when such luxuries can be afforded, good sir. I'm here purely on business."_

_"Ah, but of course! What is it you're looking for?"_

_"I need one Lord Sephiran's... personal effects. He...er...asked me to fetch it for him."_

_"Hmm... Lord Sephiran, you say..."_

_"I can pay you well enough."_

_"Ah, but of course! What is the specific item you seek?"_

_"A book. Leather-bound, with a triangle marking the cover..."_


	13. XII

**~Chapter Twelve  
**

_November 11__th__, 648.  
_ "It is time to get moving." the Apostle told Ike and Zelgius. "Do we have a target?"  
"We'll head for Flaguerre first." Zelgius informed her evenly. "Since the Laguz Alliance has fought in Flaguerre already, they are familiar with the lay of the land."  
"Sounds like a good plan." A pause. "Ike... Do you still resent your choice to command this army?"  
Ike shrugged slightly. "No offense, Apostle, but you didn't give me much of a choice in the first place. Besides, if I'm not fully committed, how can I expect these troops to be? Just remember; when this is all over, you'll be getting one heck of a bill."  
The Apostle smiled. "Oh, I'm sure, and I know you'll be worth it. Speaking of which, I have something for you. Consider it a down payment."  
Sigrun reached into the pack on her pegasus and drew out a familiar golden-bladed sword. "I'm sure you remember this blade." she said, offering it to Ike. "It is the holy sword Ragnell. Please take it."  
"Are you sure about this?" Ike asked, slightly surprised. "I thought you said it was one of Begnion's national treasures."  
"Indeed." Sanaki said. "This sword was used by Altina, back in the early days of Begnion. It was one of the two swords she used to fight the dark god. I can think of no better person to give it to."  
Ike took the blade from Sigrun, feeling its weight, and smiled slightly. "All right. I'd be happy to use it again. Thanks."  
"And also," Sigrun continued, "the... other blade used by Altina." She drew a second sword from the pack and held it up. It had a more ordinary sword blade, with an ornate golden hilt.  
"The Black Knight's sword." Ike stated, recognizing it instantly. His expression didn't change a bit. "I thought it had been lost when he supposedly died three years ago."  
"It was recovered by Lord Sephiran following the castle's collapse." Sanaki replied to his statement. "Its name is Alondite. We still don't know how it got into the Black Knight's possession... I thought that since I was giving you Ragnell, perhaps its sister blade should go with it. However, I would understand if you didn't want it..."  
"No, no." Ike said quickly, sticking Ragnell in the ground and taking Alondite from Sigrun. "It's a good sword, Apostle. Thank you very much... but as I prefer Ragnell, I can't think of anyone better to wield its sister blade," —he turned to Zelgius and offered the hilt— "than you."  
Zelgius took the hilt with a nod and smiled faintly. "Thank you, Ike. Apostle Sanaki. I would be honored to wield this blade." He held the sword one-handed, testing its balance and weight. He seemed strangely familiar with it.  
"Have you... used Alondite before, General Zelgius?" Sanaki asked, tilting her head curiously.  
Zelgius turned to face her and nodded slightly. "Lord Sephiran was in possession of the blade before it... disappeared. He allowed me to try it, once or twice, though I never carried it into battle."  
She nodded distractedly and moved off with Sigrun. Zelgius looked at Alondite again and smiled fondly as Ike picked up Ragnell again. "Thank you, love." he said quietly.  
"My pleasure." Ike replied.  
Ranulf, who had watched the exchange from a distance, eyed Zelgius suspiciously. Ducessa followed his gaze. "You still distrust him?" she asked.  
"I just have a hunch." he replied. "I'm going to have to talk to Ike about it soon..."

The Apostle's army was just preparing to set out when one of the Crimean Knights rode to Ike in a hurry. "Excuse me! I bring urgent news to Generals Ike and Zelgius of the Apostle's army!"  
"What happened?" Zelgius asked flatly.  
"We've received a report that the Daein army has appeared near the border between Daein and Crimea." the knight reported. "The Daein army demands custody of the apostle on behalf of Begnion. They will use force if necessary."  
"Daein wants to get in our hair again?" Ike groaned. "Perfect."  
He and Zelgius turned to the Apostle. "...I am puzzled by this." she said quietly. "Why does Daein support the senate? Well, I suppose it doesn't matter. We must change our target."  
"Agreed." Ike replied. "We have to get Daein out of our way before we do anything else."

Ducessa found Ranulf in his tent later that night, sulking. "Where's Alyx?" she asked as she came in.  
"Off with Elwyn or something." he replied sourly.  
She gave him an odd look. "What's up with you?"  
"Ah..." He groaned. "I tried to talk to Ike about Zelgius earlier. Goddess, but that man is dense! He didn't even seem to be listening to what I was saying. The only one who _was _listening was _Elena_ and _she _didn't even know what I was talking about. Oh, yes, but Ike's too important to listen to my concerns. Not like he _cares_ about a poor _Cat's _opinion..."  
She sighed. "Oh really, Captain! What are you, twenty years old?"  
"Oh, really?" he said sarcastically. "Wow, guess I'm younger than I thought. Amazing."  
She kicked him then. "Ow! What was that for?"  
"You're being an idiot." she replied flatly. "Cut it out."  
"You're not one to talk." he said grumpily. "You weren't the one trying to get it into Ike's thick head that his boyfriend is the guy who killed his dad!"  
"Well, if that was what you were saying to him, no wonder he was ignoring you." she snapped. "How would you feel if he told you that, say, Lethe killed your dad?"  
He sighed. "Okay, maybe I wasn't putting it the best way... but..."  
"Just try to tell him a little gentler next time." she said, her tone softened. "When no one else is around. Maybe then he'll listen and understand better."  
"If he tries to listen at all..."

Oscar found Kieran and Makalov sitting around the fire, long after most of the other soldiers had gone to sleep. Both of them looked a little dejected. "Hey, guys." he said, sitting down next to Kieran. Makalov just sort of gestured his acknowledgement, refusing to speak.  
"Ah! Archrival!" the red-headed knight said, sitting up quickly. "Where have you been!? I had intended to challenge you to a duel, but you were nowhere to be found!"  
"I was on a scouting mission with Titania and Jill." Oscar replied. "It took most of the day. Sorry to disappoint you."  
"Aha! Lying squinty coward!" Kieran proclaimed. "I saw you arrive back in camp two hours ago! Why did you not come to see me!?"  
"You wanted me to?" Oscar challenged. "If you really had, you would have sought me out yourself."  
"He has a point, Commander." Makalov said quietly. "Do we have to be arguing about this now, anyway?"  
"Bah!" Kieran snorted and fell silent.  
"Why are you two still up?" Oscar asked.  
Makalov picked up a stick and listlessly poked at the fire. "We were thinking about Marcia." he replied.  
The green-haired paladin sighed. "I'm worried about her, too." he confessed. "I have the feeling that the confrontation with King Hyrule last week won't be the last."  
"That dastardly creature will rue the day he ever messed with Second-Commander Kieran of the Crimean Royal Knights!" Kieran proclaimed. "I will defeat him so utterly—"  
"Kieran, he defeated _General Zelgius._" Oscar chided. "How could _we_ hope to stand against him?"  
"Not so!" Kieran insisted. "I will train until I am strong enough to defeat him! He can't be any harder than the Demon of Khaza—"  
"None of us can defeat him." Makalov moaned. "He'd kill any one of us."  
"No!" the red-headed paladin said. "I _could_ defeat him!"  
"Kieran..." Oscar sighed. "You couldn't defeat him, and you know it. You fell to King Naesala, anyhow, so how could you stand against Dark Link?"  
Kieran winced slightly and touched his leg at the thought. "But I—"  
"Give it up!" the squinty-eyed paladin suddenly shouted. "You can't defeat him, Kieran! You'd only get yourself killed, and then what would Marcia do?!"  
Kieran tried to find a response, but nothing came out. There was a long and awkward silence.  
"...We're probably safer out here, marching on Daein, than she is in Melior with General Geoffrey and the rest of the Crimean Royal Knights." Makalov mumbled. "I almost wish she was here with us."  
"Aye." Oscar agreed. "She'd be safer if she were here. _I_ would feel safer if I knew she was safe, and as long as she's in Melior, I can't."  
"I...I agree with you, Oscar." Kieran said quietly. "I'm worried for her..."  
"We all are." Makalov stated. "We're all here, and she's there, and there's nothing we can do for her..."  
The three paladins sat in silence around the dying embers of the fire. Marcia lingered in their thoughts.

"What's the news from the Empire?" Ike asked late the next morning, when Sigrun returned from reconnaissance with her contacts in Begnion.  
"The entire country has been thrown into disarray by the senate's counterclaim." she replied. "...That the Apostle is a fraud who, along with Lord Sephiran, is attempting to deceive all of Begnion and lead them away from the Goddess's graces."  
Tanith scoffed. "The naïve fools. I cannot believe that anyone could believe such nonsense."  
"It is not that difficult." Zelgius countered. "To the citizens of Begnion, the senators are chosen by the Goddess and are worthy of the same respect given to the Apostle. As for the Apostle, her image was tarnished when the Senate imprisoned Prime Minister Sephiran in her name."  
"I know that!" Tanith snapped. "But it is still a ridiculous accusation! The citizens should not be fooled by such wild claims!"  
"What news of the Senate itself?" Levail asked curiously. (He was still the commander of the Begnion forces, under Ike and Zelgius.)  
"This is the strangest part." Sigrun replied. "Apparently, the Senate has gone through some major rearrangement. Duke Lekain appears to have retired as a Senator."  
"Retired?" Sanaki asked incredulously. "He would do no such thing! This entire plot was his concoction—he wouldn't just abandon it now!"  
"Regardless, my Empress, that appears to be what has happened." Sigrun replied. "I don't understand it any more than you."  
"And what of Lord Sephiran?" Zelgius asked, a slight edge of concern in his voice.  
"...Well, he was imprisoned, as you already know." the Falcoknight said. "But apparently, if my information is correct, he disappeared over a month ago."  
"Disappeared?" Sanaki demanded. "How?"  
"Nobody knows for sure." she replied. "The Senate covered it up the best they could. I suppose he must have found some way to escape."  
"But if he escaped," Zelgius said quietly, "then why did he not attempt to contact you?"  
"He may have just been moved somewhere else." Levail suggested.  
"Or killed." Kaj added darkly. "A quick execution, a quiet disappearance, the Senate covers it up, and no one's the wiser."  
"Kaj!" Sigrun scolded. "That was uncalled for."  
"...It is a possibility." Tanith stated regretfully. "I fear Commander Kaj may be correct."  
"No." Sanaki said vehemently. "I won't give up on Sephiran. He's probably just in hiding, waiting until the right time to contact us...!"  
"Don't get your hopes up." Ike said bluntly. "Even if he's alive, there's no way we could help him."  
"I know." Sanaki muttered sadly.

Lucia was dozing when she heard the tent flap open, startling her awake. She sighed deeply, her eyes still closed. "What is it now...?"  
"Moving." she heard Naesala reply. "King Hyrule's decided to relocate you to a... safer location, in lieu of an upcoming battle. I'm just the escort."  
A moment later she felt a cold hand on her arm, and she forced herself to her feet. Her ribs ached and she moaned slightly, opening her eyes. "Where is he taking me?"  
"I'm not allowed to tell." he said, supporting her carefully. "Needless to say, it's far away from Melior and it's probably more comfortable than this tent."  
"Well, that's a relief." she mumbled, stumbling as she waited for her legs to wake up. Naesala prodded her along slightly, and she walked as best she could, though she was so tired she nearly tripped a few times on nothing.  
He walked with her for about thirty seconds before he apparently decided she was going too slow and picked her up bridal-style. She fell into a half-doze within the first five steps, and only half-listened to what was being said around her.  
_"Is something wrong with her?"  
_ _"Well, her ribs are broken and according to the guards she hasn't slept properly since she was captured. What did you think, that she would be perfectly healthy for your pleasure?"  
_ _"Shut up."  
_ _"As you wish, oh Glorious Master. What can I do but serve you?"  
_ _"King Kilvas..."  
_ _"Oh, fine, whatever. Just take her, already."  
_ _"...Ah. Of course."  
_ _"Don't hurt her."  
_ _"On the contrary, raven king. She shan't be hurt until you give me reason for it."  
_ _"That's hardly comforting..."  
_

_"Did you find it?"  
_ _"Yes, my lord sage. As you requested."  
_ _"...Ah, yes, this is the one. Thank you. You've been most helpful."  
_ _"My pleasure. Our agreement is still intact, I assume...?"  
_ _"Of course. King Hyrule knows nothing of you, William Merric. I keep my promises."  
_

_"Another report so soon, my dear Jak?"  
_ _"King Naesala. What do you know of Vice-Minister Lekain?"  
_ _"Bah! Don't speak of that man to me. I hate him more than I can say."  
_ _"...When was the last time you spoke to him, your Majesty...?"  
_

_"H-hahh! What the—"  
"Oh, I'm sorry. Are you all right?"  
_ _"W-who are you?"  
_ _"I'm one of the mercenaries hired by your army to boost its ranks. Surely General Tauroneo mentioned it?"  
_ _"O-oh... yes, I think he did."_  
_"And you're the king of Daein?"  
_ _"...Y-yes, I'm Pelleas."  
_ _"It's an honor to meet you, your Majesty."  
_ _"No, stand up...! Please don't stand on ceremony. I'm still not quite used to this."  
_ _"As you wish, my lord."  
__"Darn it, now I've dropped my books..."  
__"Oh, I'm sorry, my lord. Here, I'll pick this up—"  
__"No, wait, I'll get it... General Tauroneo did tell me about the mercenaries, actually, but I haven't seen you before."  
__"I joined just a few days ago, my lord. Here's your tome."  
__"Thank you. What's your name—i-if you don't mind me asking?"  
__"My name? ...No, I don't mind. It's... Mars."  
_

_"Hello! How can I help?"  
_ _"What? Who—"  
__"You and I were born under the same fate."  
__"'Same fate?' What do you mean?"  
__"You carry the mark, do you not? The Brand?"  
__"...Well, I...I don't know what you mean—ah! Let go!"  
__"See? On your wrist. I have one like it. Don't you know what it means?"  
__"No... I just know that my mother told me to hide it always... Why? What does it mean?"  
__"Hah! You really don't know? That mark is a Brand, girl. It means you have laguz blood."  
__"Laguz blood...? But...how could I? Up until recently, I didn't know laguz even existed..."  
__"...What age do you call yourself, girl?"  
__"Nineteen."  
__"And how old are you really, hmm? I don't think you're as young as you claim. That is part of the curse of the Brand. ...Did you really not notice? How long have you been in the desert?"  
__"I... I did notice, but I always thought... ah, I don't know. I don't know how long I've been walking the sands—at least a week, I would guess. I had a friend with me, but we were separated... I had hoped, in the desert, I could perhaps hide from the outside world and the enemy that pursues me, but... my strength is... failing..."  
__"...Come with me. I'll take you to my village. There are others there—others like us, bearing the mark. You'll be safe there, I promise."  
__"My friend... May I ask your name?"  
__"When you ask someone's name, isn't it proper to give your name first?"  
__"Ah... I apologize. My name is... Elice. Elice Caeda."  
__"And I am Stefan. Well met. Let's go."_


	14. XIII

**~Chapter Thirteen**

_November 14__th__, 648.  
_ The residents of Melior were greeted that morning by a low fog that filled the entire city. It had blown in the previous night, and shortly afterwards the winds had died, leaving the thick white mist lingering for hours in the streets.  
Up on the roof of the tallest tower in the castle, Queen Elincia sat against the central spire, her pegasus having flown down to graze while she rested. From here, she could see the bright blue sky overhead, the thick fog only three feet below where she sat. She sighed tiredly and folded her hands behind her head.  
"Having a pleasant day, your Majesty?" a voice suddenly asked, startling her out of her reverie. Marcia flew to the edge of the tower roof and lightly leapt off Jewel, patting the pegasus before sending her away. The pink-haired knight walked over and sat down beside the young queen. "It is rather nice up here, compared to down there."  
"Do you come up here often?" Elincia asked offhandedly. "It seems so quiet, so far away from everything else, and yet it's only about ten feet above my bedroom."  
"I fly up here every now and then." Marcia replied. "It's a good place to relax, when you don't have anywhere else to go when you want to take a break."  
"Yes..." The young queen sighed again and leaned back further, staring up at the sky. "Though it isn't always relaxing when you spend the entire time worrying about imminent threats..."  
"I'm more worried for Oscar and Kieran, to be honest." the pink-haired knight said, interlacing her fingers and stretching her arms. "And Makalov too, I suppose. It's silly, but for some reason I think Dark Link might go for them, instead of us. I don't know why..."  
"I have the feeling I would feel the same way, if Geoffrey had gone with them." Elincia replied. "It must be harder for you, though. All three of them left, and you stayed behind."  
"I would have gone," she complained. "General Geoffrey ordered me to stay..."  
"Maybe it's for the best." the young queen murmured. "So that this way, if Dark Link attacks either us or them, we'll be able to hold him off."  
"That's what I'm hoping for, anyway." another voice suddenly said.  
Both girls looked up to see Sharon fly up through the fog bank and hover next to the rooftop, long enough for her and Roy to hop off. The green-haired knight whispered something to Bree and patted her before sending the pegasus back down, presumably to join Jewel and Elincia's pegasus.  
Roy, the one who had spoken, stepped forward and sat down next to Marcia. "If the Shadow attacks the Crimean Army, we'll be ready for him, and if he attacks Commander Kieran, well... that's his loss."  
"So much for my secret place." Elincia complained good-naturedly.  
"Yours?" Sharon laughed slightly as she walked forward to join them. "I thought this was _my_ secret place. I guess it's no one's anymore."  
"Tis' but a tragedy." Roy lamented sarcastically.  
Marcia laughed. "Now you sound like Count Bastian."  
"I do? Oh dear." Roy smiled. "Tis' but a Bastian of the mind, milady, though what light thou sees I cannot digest!"  
"Could anyone understand what he just said?" Sharon asked. "Because I couldn't."  
All three girls laughed. "See, this is why I like people like Kieran and Oscar." Marcia said cheerily. "They're not as skilled as saying so much and meaning so little. They just blurt it out."  
"You don't like it?" Roy shrugged. "Oh well. So much for my flirting attempts."  
"Watch it, wise guy." Sharon elbowed him. "I doubt the Queen takes too kindly to your ridiculous talk."  
"Oh, let it be, Sharon." Elincia said, sitting up. "I don't mind, anyway."  
Roy batted his eyelashes playfully and grinned. "Ah! See? I am getting through to thee, milady! Thou shalt understand me and mine ere the bell tolls!"  
Sharon rolled her eyes. "Try again, Roy. I certainly don't know what you just said, so how are we supposed to understand you?"  
The Altean prince rolled his eyes and laughed. "Tis' but a tragedy." he said again.

"Queen Elincia!" Geoffrey was waiting for her when the three girls and Roy returned to the ground.  
"What is it, Geoffrey?" Elincia asked. "News on the Apostle's army?"  
"No, your Majesty. It's Hyrule...!"  
"Hyrule?" She frowned. "What's happened?"  
In reply, he offered her a letter. "A Kilvas Raven dropped this off a few hours ago."  
She took it and opened it, her eyes quickly scanning the neat print;

_To Queen Elincia Ridell Crimea;  
_ _You have not much time, so this will be brief. This war has gone on far too long for my liking. I need to know the location of the Crown Prince of Altea; once I have it, you shall be left alone. Send me a messenger with the correct location by the twelfth mark of the 14__th__ day of November, and Lady Lucia will be returned to you unharmed. I shall not be so lenient in the future, should you refuse.  
_ _Most sincerely,  
_ _King Dark Link of Hyrule_

At the bottom of the page, underlining the Shadow's name, was an ominous streak of blood.  
"What time is it?" Elincia asked hurriedly.  
Geoffrey looked aside regretfully. "Eleven forty-five, your Majesty. I'm sorry I... couldn't alert you sooner."  
The young queen quickly turned to the young Altean prince. "Roy, quick! Is there anything I can tell him that would direct him the wrong way!?" she demanded.  
"I-I think he can detect lies..." Roy stammered. "M-maybe if we just held information back, l-like his specific destination, or if we warped the truth..."  
"Where is he?" Elincia demanded. "Where is Marth!?"  
"Daein..." Roy mumbled weakly.  
"There's no way any kind of message could reach him in time, Elincia." Marcia stated. "It would be too late to stop him straight off..."  
"No! I must... think of something..." Elincia closed her eyes tightly, trying to think.  
"It's almost twelfth mark, m'lady." Sharon said sadly. "Write fast, but she could already be dead by the time it got there."  
Elincia swore under her breath and slid off her pegasus. "Maybe we can ask him for time..."  
"Why would we need time if we were just going to tell him what he wanted?" Roy asked bitterly. "We won't get any time from him, Elincia. Just hope that he kills her quickly... if he kills her at all."

Dark Link gazed across the field, towards the great city. "(Melior.)" he said quietly, stroking his dragon's smooth black scales. "(The capital city of Crimea. Magnificent, isn't it?)" Shard just grunted.  
"King Naesala." Dark Link called, no hint of emotion in his voice.  
The Raven flew up and landed beside him. "Yes?" he asked flatly.  
"What time is it?"  
"Twelfth mark."  
"Have we received any messengers?"  
"No."  
Dark Link sighed slightly. "Then they still refuse. A pity. Prepare the soldiers."  
"What of Lucia?"  
"We have more pressing matters." Dark Link swung himself up onto Shard's back, and the dragon spread its wings.

A Crimean soldier came rushing into the throne room at full speed. "Q-Queen Elincia!" he gasped.  
Elincia and Geoffrey spun to face him. "What is it?" the young queen demanded.  
"I-it's Hyrule and Kilvas! They're here!"  
"_What!?_" Geoffrey stormed forward and grabbed the man's shoulder. "Are you sure?!"  
The soldier nodded quickly. "Yes, sir! They're already at the walls...!"

"They'll be here tomorrow." Sothe stated, looking out over Riven Bridge. It was almost twenty-first mark, and the faint trails of smoke from the resting army could be seen in the distant night sky, clouding the stars.  
"I know." Micaiah replied quietly, moving to stand at his side. "I only hope we're ready for them."  
"You saw what they did to us at the river." Sothe said grimly. "This is going to be a slaughter."  
"We can only try." she murmured.

"Elincia!" Geoffrey called, riding to her side away from the battle on the walls. "Are you all right?"  
"I'm fine." she replied quickly, her pegasus prancing nervously. "How are we doing?"  
"Not so good." he replied. "I don't understand it! It's only been a week, but his army seems to have almost doubled in size! They outnumber us almost two to one!"  
"He must have been holding troops back in the previous battle." Elincia replied. "Are they still just the bulblins?"  
"No, milady. They have—they have new soldiers in the ranks." Geoffrey said. "Lizard-like creatures, and huge creatures with shields and spears—they're like battering rams."  
"Roy mentioned creatures like those. Lizalfos and moblins. What about Dark Link and Naesala?"  
"No sign of them yet, milady. The Kilvas Ravens are here, though, so I doubt their king is far."  
"Alright." Elincia drew Amiti, the royal blade feeling like lead in her hands. "We'd best get down there."  
"Milady, you shouldn't..! It's not safe—"  
"Geoffrey, I'm certainly not going to stay behind and—"  
She was cut off as a Crimean soldier screamed "Dragon!" and was immediately followed by a deafening roar. They looked in the direction of the sound just in time to see a black shadow sweep over a platoon of Crimean Knights, pouring white-hot fire through the thick blanket of fog. The lucky troops died instantly. The others were lit on fire, surrounded by an inferno. Screams could be heard.  
"Oh my Goddess." Geoffrey breathed as Dark Link and the magnificent dragon he rode flew high out of range of the Crimean arrows, leaving an entire platoon burning behind him. The dragon roared again and spread its wings.  
Elincia swore under her breath. "If only we could hurt him, we might stand a chance..."  
"Sir Zelgius said that he could tire if he was wounded enough." Geoffrey reminded her. "And he may be vulnerable to arrows. If we could just get him over here, perhaps I could bring them down."  
"Leave that to me." Elincia said darkly, her grip on Amiti tightening.  
"Milady...!"  
"Just make sure you take the shot when you get the chance." she ordered him. "Don't hesitate. We have to end this now."  
He nodded, wiping the sweat from his brow. "Of course... your Majesty. Be careful."  
She managed a nod, unable to speak past the lump in her throat. Then she kicked her pegasus' sides, urging him into the air.

Of course, Dark Link saw her coming. He swept down to meet her, the mark on the back of his exposed left hand still pulsating blood-red. "Do you seek me intentionally, Queen Crimea?" he asked, spinning the blade easily in his hand.  
"I'll not let you take any more lives today, Dark Link." she said darkly, holding Amiti before her.  
"You would fight me?" He laughed coldly. "A fool thou art, then. I'll ask you this once; where is Prince Marth?"  
"I've already told you, I don't know."  
His mark flashed black for just a second, and he glanced at it offhandedly. "Speak the truth. You know where he is."  
"No... I don't!" She urged her pegasus backwards a few beats.  
He didn't advance, but just glanced at the mark as it flashed black again. "Don't lie to me, girl." he suddenly snarled, his eyes flashing white. "You know what I seek."  
She backed up again. "I won't let you kill any more innocent people." she stated.  
"Hah." He laughed once again. "Fight me, then, and perhaps when you're crushed beneath your pegasi's body you'll recant your decision." Then he spat a single word in the ancient tongue and the dragon shot forward with a mighty roar, and her entire vision was filled with darkness for one split second before the black blade came crashing down. She barely got Amiti up in time to block it, and the force of the blow caused her to shudder. She kicked her pegasus and swept beneath the lunging dragon, swinging up as she went under, hoping to land a hit, but her blade passed harmlessly beneath its belly. She came up behind him and stabbed at its rider, but he knocked her sword aside.  
Then it was his turn to attack again, and he came down on her hard, his sword a blur of black and blue. It crashed down on Amiti three times, each relentless blow sending her reeling in the saddle. She broke away from him and flew straight past him, swinging once as she went, and she was dismayed to hear it connect only against steel. Her real purpose here came to mind, and she circled around, flying back towards Geoffrey and the mages a little way before turning to face her opponent again.  
He cried a few words in the ancient tongue and the dragon roared and spun. In two mighty wingbeats he was above her, upside down in the air, yet he did not fall from the beast's back. She was almost too stunned to duck as his sword came sweeping down at her, and then he swept down in front of her and righted himself. "You would see your dear Lady Lucia tormented?" he taunted her, spinning the sword and switching between hands five times in five seconds before leveling it at her with his red-glowing left hand.  
"I would see you dead for your crimes!" she retorted, and she urged her pegasus forward, streaking past him again and attacking twice. Her swings were blocked both times, and then Dark Link twisted the dragon around with her movements, slashing at her pegasus' wings. He hit solidly and both pegasus and rider screamed, one in pain and the other in fear.  
Elincia desperately swerved and she lost altitude dramatically as her mount struggled to remain aloft. "How long will you go before you halt this foolishness?" Dark Link called, flying down right beside her.  
She gritted her teeth and ignored him, flying back towards the courtyard where Geoffrey waited. He was right on her heels, and she knew he could have ordered the dragon to breath fire and killed her outright, yet instead he only followed her. She landed in a crumpled heap, her pegasus not even able to remain upright. Dark Link flew overhead.  
Just as Geoffrey shot, a group of thunder mages cast Elthunder. A huge well of golden magical aura surrounded the courtyard. Runes appeared on the ground at the mages' feet as they spoke the words of the Elthunder in sync, and the air throbbed with electricity. Just as Geoffrey dismounted to help Elincia up, the bow dropped, a dozen streaks of gold lightning came down from the clouds and surrounded Dark Link and the dragon in throbbing power. The dragon roared just before it hit, and in the smoky clouds and thunder the beast and its rider were lost to sight. When the aura faded and the magic disappeared, he was gone as well.  
Elincia got shakily to her feet, Amiti having fallen from her hands. "What happened?" she asked, not daring to hope. "Is he gone?"  
"Hardly." a cold voice said. The two of them spun around to find King Hyrule himself standing on the ground, sword in hand, the crackle of electricity still eminent around him. His eyes were narrowed to slits and his mark was glowing brighter.  
"Damn you!" Elincia spat, falling back as Geoffrey stepped to protect her, brave lance in hand.  
"How long must this foolish endeavor continue?" the Shadow asked, leveling the black blade at Geoffrey ominously. "It is a pity you refused to tell. I would have liked to know you, Queen Crimea."  
There was a terrible roar overhead, and both Geoffrey and Elincia barely had time to look up before the dragon swept over the mages, fire pouring out of his mouth. They were burnt to ash in mere seconds.  
"Monster!" Elincia snarled.  
Dark Link didn't even reply. One moment he was there, his sword leveled at Geoffrey; the next, he was right up in front of him and the blade was stabbing in all too fast. The knight commander barely had enough time to dodge the killing blow, and before he could counter the Shadow was on him again. He managed to dodge the second time as well, and he swung at Dark Link. The dark boy leapt back out of the reach, and then Geoffrey, seeing an opening, stepped forward and stabbed at him.  
But it was a trap; Dark Link leapt again—not backwards, but forwards. And landed—on the brave lance. Time seemed to slow as he balanced there completely at ease, as the queen and her knight gasped in surprise, and then he swung down hard and sheared clean through the sturdy wood and the lance was broken in two. Geoffrey dropped the piece he still held as the Shadow nimbly flipped over the knight's head, landing in a crouch. Elincia barely had time to cry out in shock before Dark Link had spun around and slammed the flat of the blade into the back of Geoffrey's knees, knocking him down, and then put the black blade to the knight commander's throat.  
"No!" Elincia screamed as Dark Link twisted Geoffrey around to face her, gripping one of the blue-haired knight's arms with unnatural strength and not removing the blade from his neck. Her hand finally found Amiti and she held it up defensively.  
"I wouldn't be doing that." the Shadow said darkly. The dragon landed behind him with another roar, as if to emphasize the point.  
"Let him go!" Elincia cried.  
"On the contrary," Dark Link replied. "He'll be going somewhere very dark and cold in just a minute if you don't tell me what I want to know. Death is a cruel place indeed, certainly somewhere I don't envy him for going to."  
"Queen Elincia..." Geoffrey choked.  
Elincia stepped forward, holding Amiti, and Dark Link's grip on Geoffrey tightened. "It was this one I wanted originally, in fact." he said coldly. "King Kilvas failed and got the sister, but that is no matter now. I'll ask you only one more time;_ Where is Prince Marth?"  
_ "Don't... tell him... anything." the knight commander gasped. "I..."  
"Really, you are all so naïve." Dark Link chided. "All I asked was directions to one man, one _unimportant_ prince of a _dead land,_ and you would all be willing to die to keep him hidden. Why?"  
"You've put Prince Marth through enough suffering." she spat. "We've already seen what power the one mark holds—the one _shard_ of the 'object' you spoke of. Who knows what you would do if you got the second piece? We're willing to die to keep Crimea from going the way of Akaneia!"  
"How many will you allow to die, then, hmm?" The edge of the sword scraped Geoffrey's neck, drawing blood. "The brother, the sister... all the Royal Knights, all your people... how many more must fall before you will speak? My armies are endless, Queen Crimea, and I doubt that you can say the same. I can fight forever and you cannot. I hold every advantage. How willing are you to die for a pointless cause? How willing are you to let others die for you? Can you truly live with that blood on your hands?"  
"Elincia...! Don't—" Geoffrey tried to speak, but was cut off by the blade pressing even closer.  
"How can _you_ live with the blood of a _continent_ on your hands?" Elincia challenged.  
It seemed like eternity to the young queen as Dark Link considered her question. "That is the difference between us, Queen Crimea." he finally said, his voice soft. "I have learned to close my eyes. You... cannot. You always have to watch."  
She felt a lump in her throat and tried to block the tears. He was right. She couldn't close her eyes. Not for Geoffrey. "Daein." she mumbled, lowering Amiti in defeat. "He's in Daein. That's all I know."  
The Shadow smiled condescendingly. "There, now that wasn't so hard, was it?"  
"No...!" Geoffrey choked.  
"Let him go!" Elincia cried. "I told you what you wanted, now release him!"  
Dark Link paused for a long moment. Then he drew the sword back and shoved Geoffrey forward. The knight staggered and nearly fell, clutching instinctively at his throat, and Elincia rushed to his side. "For finally giving me an honest answer... I'll show a little leniency, this time. But you shan't go unpunished." Dark Link said ominously. "You have one hour to leave the city, Queen Crimea. Any of your knights or soldiers still here at that time will be imprisoned. Anyone who resists will be killed. Lady Lucia will escape pain this time, but any attempts by you or your knights to aid the Altean prince will worsen her torment."  
He stepped back to stand besides his dragon. "One mark, Queen Crimea. Melior is mine." Then he swung up effortlessly and within a few seconds he was gone. A few minutes after that his soldiers were falling back.  
Elincia fell to her knees, her eyes glistening with tears. "What have I done?" she moaned. "Oh, Goddess help me... what have I done...?"

_"Is that you, Mars?"_  
_"King Pelleas. This is an unexpected honor..."  
"No, please! I told you I'm not quite used to all this yet."  
_ _"Ah, yes... as you wish, my lord. Did you need something?"  
_ _"It's just... we'll be meeting with the rest of the Daein army tomorrow... er... how do I put this? I would feel safer if I had a bodyguard."  
_ _"...Lady Micaiah and the Dawn Brigade will be there, will they not? Do you really need a guard in that situation?"  
_ _"Well, actually... to tell the truth, I... I would feel safer if you were there. I hardly know you, but I... for some reason, I just... I trust you. Please?"  
_ _"...Your wish is my command."  
_ _"Thank you."  
_

_November 15__th__, 648.  
_ "Micaiah, it's over. The front line is broken. The Apostle's army is crossing the bridge." Sothe reported darkly.  
"All right, then... Order a retreat." she replied after only a moment's pause.  
"Are you a fool?" Dark Link asked, slightly irritated. "Destroy the bridge."  
Micaiah moved to stand besides Sothe. "My lord Dark Link... With all due respect, Daein soldiers will also die if we destroy the bridge now."  
"Those are called acceptable losses." the king replied flatly.  
"My lord. While I respect your opinion... The final decision is up to me, as commander in chief of this army. Sothe, order the retreat. Get those men out of there before they're routed."  
"Do you plan on retreating every time?" Dark Link asked incredulously. "It is a wonder you ever accomplished anything, Lady Micaiah."  
"We could always leave you here while the rest of us retreat. How's that sound?" Sothe asked sarcastically.  
"Well... I suppose it is your decision. However... you should exercise caution, Lady Micaiah. You may regret this when General Ike is knocking on Begnion's door, and the Senate looks for someone to blame..." Then the dark boy swept off into the shadows.  
"Bastard..." Micaiah muttered.  
"I'll go order the retreat." Sothe said.

"The Daein army is much stronger than it was three years ago." Zelgius commented. The Daein army had retreated, and the Apostle's army was crossing the Riven Bridge now.  
"Yes, by far." Sigrun agreed. "Even after the situation turned against them, every soldier fought with valor. Quite impressive."  
"They kept muttering about the power of their general, this 'Maiden of Dawn.' The soldiers seem obsessed with her." Tanith added.  
"This might sound strange, but think of it like this; they believe in her as much as you Holy Knights believe in the Apostle." Ike suggested.  
"Hmph, I understand." Tanith said darkly. "They are formidable and deluded, then. I shall use caution."  
The four of them heard a soft melodic voice say something in the ancient tongue, and turned. Leanne smiled brightly and spoke again.  
"She said she hopes she helped in the battle." Zelgius stated. Leanne nodded.  
"You speak the Ancient Language?" Sigrun asked in surprise.  
"I understand it, mostly." he replied. "Though I cannot speak it well."  
"I... I help Ike, Zz... Zi..." Leanne frowned. "Zeh..."  
"'Zelgius'." Ike supplied helpfully.  
"Zel-gih-us!" she said, smiling again. "I help Ike and Zelgius, yes?"  
"Yes, Leanne." Ike smiled faintly. "You were a great help. Thanks."  
"El... Ele... er..." She frowned again. "El-ai-na? She said... Rah... Rahn... ah..."  
"Ranulf?" Sigrun asked.  
Leanne nodded. "Yes! Rah-nulf! He see... shadow?"  
"Ranulf saw a shadow?" Tanith frowned. "What foolishness is this?"  
"No." Leanne's brow furrowed as she tried to say the words. "Cah... cah-peh-tahl..."  
"Capitol? Capitol of what?"  
"No! Shadow... er... drah...ugh..." She sighed in frustration.  
"Leanne." Zelgius said quietly. "(Tell me.)"  
She smiled in relief and rattled off several rapid-fire sentences. Zelgius frowned. "(A bit... slower.)"  
She spoke again, enunciating as clearly as she could. "What did she say?" Ike asked.  
"Elena told her that Ranulf saw the Shadow." Zelgius replied carefully. "_The_ Shadow. He had the dragon and he was flying back towards Crimea." He glanced at Leanne for conformation, and she nodded.  
"The Shadow..." Ike looked back quickly at Leanne. "The Shadow from Altea?"  
She frowned slightly. "Er... Shadow... Ay-kay-nay-ah, yes?"  
"Who is the Shadow?" Tanith demanded.  
"Not a good person." Ike replied flatly. "You remember the Altean refugees, right? The Shadow is the one that destroyed Altea, and the entire continent of Akaneia. He was the one that attacked Crimea, and he's currently allied with Kilvas and the Senate. He was the one that captured Zelgius... If he's around, it could mean we're in for an attack from the Hyrulean army."

_November 20__th_, 648.

"Well, you were right." Sothe said quietly to Micaiah, as the two of them looked past the cliff edge to the pass far below. "The Apostle's forces are using this road to avoid a head-on collision."  
"Then they really do not want to fight." Dark Link said quietly from behind them, his left hand gently stroking his dragon's—Shard, he'd called it—black-scaled muzzle. "As you foresaw, Lady Micaiah. Perhaps you are not as foolish as I previously believed."  
Micaiah took the comment in stride and stepped back from the cliff to join him. "I still don't understand why Hyrule is getting involved in this war." she remarked.  
His expression didn't change. "I have an agreement with the Begnion Senate." he replied evenly. "They assisted me in the past, so I will assist them in this. That's all you need know, my lady. Political matters should not concern you."  
She conceded the point and turned back to Sothe. "Are the rocks ready?"  
He gritted his teeth for just a moment and nodded. "Yes, but... Micaiah... it was always you who used to hate plans like this. Is this really necessary?"  
"Do you wish to halt the Apostle's army, or not?" Dark Link asked flatly. "Lady Micaiah's plan is innovative, to say the least. If it works, then you should be glad."  
"Don't you have any morals...?" Sothe mumbled under his breath.  
"I choose not to waste them on such petty battles as these." the Shadow replied. Sothe started; he hadn't thought Dark Link could hear him. "Do not fail, Lady Micaiah. You know what is at stake."  
She nodded. King Pelleas had informed them five days previously of the blood pact the Senate held. Hyrule's spies had already informed him of it, apparently, and of the fact that she knew about it. It was a game of wills every time she looked at him.  
A Daein soldier rushed up to them and bowed. "General Maiel's forces have encountered the laguz forces. The battle has begun! The decoy operation succeeded."  
Micaiah nodded and looked to her troops, taking a deep breath to steady herself. "All forces, get in position! Our target is the Apostle. We will attack her while General Ike and General Zelgius are distracted."  
"We have visual conformation on the Holy Guards!" another Daein soldier called. "They're heading this way!"

"Damn!" Tanith swore as the Daein army came down from the cliffs above. "We're being ambushed! I should have known..."  
"What is happening?!" Sanaki demanded, poking her head out of her carriage.  
"We're under attack." Sigrun replied. "We will engage them now. Please stay inside the carriage, your Majesty."  
"Someone, go tell General Ike!" Tanith cried. One of the Holy Guards nodded and kicked her pegasus, wheeling to fly back the way they'd come and escape the Daein soldiers.

"Lying in wait for your enemies! What a dirty trick!" Kieran spat contemptuously, riding forward to join Levail and Kaj.  
"That's odd. I always heard the Maiden of Dawn wasn't one for such tricks." Kaj remarked.  
Levail drew the Wishblade and nodded. "Well it's happening now. Kaj, you'll command the front troops with Kieran. I'll support the north units."  
Kaj nodded and spun his silver dagger in his hand. "Yes, sir."  
"The Crimean Royal Knights shall lead the charge!" Kieran declared, drawing his silver poleax. "Hyaa!" He kicked his stallion and it briefly reared before charging into the front ranks.  
Levail moved to leave but was briefly stopped by Kaj's arm on his shoulder. "If you're in trouble, I'll be there." the boy assured him.  
"I know." Levail replied, and then he turned away again and ran to his troops.

The Daein soldier in front of Micaiah shoved the boulder heavily, and it tumbled off the platform to roll down the cliff and strike the enemies far below. She walked forward and saw the battle below, appraised how it was going. So far, their forces were doing fairly well, though the Crimean Knights at the front were bringing some trouble.  
"The battle goes well." a cold voice said from behind her. She turned slightly to see Dark Link atop Shard, just behind her. "However, it is nearing the time to put your plan into action."  
"I know." she said regretfully. "Where are Hyrule's forces in all this?"  
"I would see how Daein fares before taking my troops to the field." he replied flatly. "Give the battle another hour at the most. I shall return shortly. There are matters I must attend to." He leaned forward and patted Shard's scaled neck, speaking softly in the ancient tongue. A moment later the dragon flapped hard and ascended, leaving Micaiah to turn and speculate on the battle once again.

The only reason Sothe had sought out this one opponent was because he used a dagger. Not a sword, or lance or axe or bow—this boy, barely Sothe's age himself, spun a silver dagger easily in his hand as the green-haired rogue approached him. Dagger-wielding opponents were rare—rarer still were dagger-wielding commanders with patchwork of Begnion armor. This dark-haired boy was much like Sothe himself, he realized.  
"Do you seek me out? Hah." The boy laughed, but there was no humor in his voice. "I shan't have mercy on my enemies."  
"I didn't think Begnion was in the habit of hiring rogues as their commanders." Sothe remarked, slowly sliding a steel knife out of his belt.  
"They aren't." the boy replied smoothly. "I'm an exception. M'name's Kaj, second-in-command under General Levail, of the Begnion forces under General Ike and General Zelgius."  
"How did you ever get that position?" Sothe asked, genuinely curious, though he tried not to show it.  
"General Levail values my skills." Kaj countered. "You should not underestimate them."  
"I'll take that in mind." Sothe flipped the knife out of his belt and threw it suddenly, the blade catching the light as it spun. Kaj executed a perfect backflip, dodging under the spinning knife, and when he came up he returned the attack with his own knife. Sothe sidestepped it, his second knife already on its way, but again the dark-haired boy dodged it with ease.  
"My turn," Kaj said, and flipping the dagger back into his hand he shot at Sothe so fast the Rogue barely had time to see it coming. He leapt back and used his knife as he would a dagger, but Sothe easily knocked the blow aside. He was a bit too slow to dodge the second attack, and the silver dagger sliced into his arm, causing him to flinch.  
"I shan't be taken so easily." Sothe muttered, and now he drew his own dagger and shot forward in a flash. The light glinted on the steel as the two daggers clashed into each other, and then Kaj twisted around and kicked Sothe in the stomach. The green-haired Rogue only lost his balance for a moment, and spinning forward he slammed his dagger on the other boy's weapon and flipped over his head. Kaj rolled forward and came around, a knife flying from his left hand wrist and nearly taking Sothe in the side. Sothe rushed forward again and stabbed, and he cut Kaj in the side. The boy grimaced and chopped the side of his hand down on Sothe's wrist, causing the other boy to almost yelp and drop his dagger. Then he grabbed Sothe's right wrist and twisted him around, kneeing him in the back of the legs.  
Sothe broke loose and went into a roll, tumbling away from Kaj, and turned just in time to catch his opponent's kick with one of his own, sending them both off balance. Kaj recovered first and leapt forward, swinging his leg out to trip Sothe up, but the green-haired rogue leapt over the leg and slammed his own foot into Kaj's side. They both stumbled back again.  
That was when Sothe heard Yune nearby; Micaiah's signal for him to return. A moment later the call for the Daein army to fall back went around. "I would love to continue this battle, but I don't have the time." Sothe remarked dryly.  
"Ah, but of course." Kaj bowed mockingly. "Perhaps we'll see who's the better upon a later date."  
Sothe nodded and ran. He went into a roll after just a few feet and ducked behind a boulder, just in case the dark-haired boy tried to knife him in the back. Instead, he saw Kaj falling back to rejoin a fairly young man in relatively unique Begnion armor. General Levail, he assumed.  
The two of them retreated to protect the Apostle's carriage, and Sothe breathed easier knowing that _that_one wasn't in his range any longer.

A Daein soldier ran up to Micaiah. "General Maiel has fallen to the claws of the sub-humans!" he reported quickly. "The Laguz Alliance is heading this way to rescue the Apostle!"  
"...Prepare to move to the next phase." Micaiah said decisively, deliberately ignoring Dark Link's cold presence behind her. "Archers, get ready! There's no more time for doubt."  
The one soldier left, and the others at the edge of the cliff overturned the barrels they'd carried up there, pouring their ominous black contents down the cliff.

"What are they doing?" Sanaki demanded at the bottom of the cliff, looking up at the Daein soldiers far above.  
"No!" Sigrun cried. "It's... It's oil! They're going to set us aflame! Apostle, onto my pegasus! We'll take to the sky!"  
"We will protect the apostle from the archers by becoming her shield!" Tanith proclaimed. "Holy Guards, form up!" The Holy Guard rode in a circle around Sigrun, who pulled Apostle Sanaki onto the saddle before her, and they began to ascend.  
"No! No, Sigrun!" Sanaki cried. "We cannot leave the others here! I will not allow it!" The woman payed little attention to her.  
"Commander, we're ready!" Tanith reported. The pegasi rose.

Up at the top of the cliff, Micaiah saw the Holy Guard flying up. "Don't let the Apostle escape!" she cried. "Archers, mages! Bring down that pegasus!" The soldiers drew back arrows and the mages prepared their spells, and Micaiah swallowed nervously. Sothe looked at her, concerned. Dark Link was emotionless.  
Then, too fast for anyone to react, a brown blur shot through the three of them, and Sothe found himself being dragged off his feet. Micaiah yelped in alarm as Tibarn flew past the edge of the cliff, dangling Sothe precariously, and turned to face her. "Don't move." he called darkly. "I see one arrow fly, and the boy gets a quick lesson in falling."  
"Sothe!" Micaiah cried. "No, please! All units, cease fire! Now!"  
"No." Dark Link said flatly. The Daein soldiers looked back at their commander and her advisor in confusion. "Bring down the Apostle. The boy is of no concern."  
"M-my lord!" Micaiah stammered. "We cannot...!"  
Dark Link grabbed her shoulder and leaned next to her. "Would you sacrifice Daein for the sake of one boy?" he hissed.  
"I... no..." she muttered. Tibarn appeared to be listening intently. "But... I..."  
"General Ike and General Zelgius have reached us..." Tauroneo suddenly said, calling their attention to something else. The Laguz Alliance was approaching from the north. "We've failed."  
The King of Hyrule gave Micaiah a dark look, then turned to face the approaching threat.  
The two Generals were there in just a few minutes. "Micaiah of Daein." Zelgius said flatly, Alondite in hand. "And Dark Link of Hyrule. Listen carefully."  
"Tell him to let Sothe go!" Micaiah cried.  
"Not a chance." Ike answered for Zelgius. "We're offering you a choice. Surrender now and go home to Daein, or fight us and die."  
"She won't. She will not retreat or negotiate." Dark Link said, his voice devoid of emotion.  
Micaiah glanced at him, then nodded nervously. "He's right. Regardless of what you believe, the only choice we have is to fight."  
"Micaiah, are you insane?" Ike demanded. "Look around! Every single person in your army will die! Do you care that little about them?"  
"Enough!" a shrill voice cried from behind them. Micaiah and Dark Link turned slightly to regard the Apostle, still surrounded by the Holy Guard and riding on Sigrun's pegasus. "Everyone stand down!" she called.  
Dark Link's expression did not change. "She... _we_ will not stand down." he said. A pause; then, slowly and deliberately; "Soldiers of Daein. If you value your country, kill the Apostle."  
"What!?" Micaiah yelped. The Daein soldiers looked confused. "No!" she added, and they stood to attention, preferring to listen to their Maiden of Dawn, rather than the Shadow.  
Zelgius leveled Alondite at Dark Link and spoke to Micaiah. "Call your forces off." he said warningly. She shook her head. Sigrun and the Holy Guard flew higher.  
Dark Link sighed. "Ah. Pathetic. If you cannot do it yourself, then I shall take her down for you." He suddenly exploded into motion, his right hand shooting into the small bag on his hip and somehow whipping out a bow with an arrow already nocked on the string, his left hand grabbing it before it slipped. Before anyone could do anything, he spun, drew it back, and fired, not even bothering to sight.  
He only just missed his real target, but the shot was so perfect it was hard to tell if he had not been aiming differently all along. The arrow hissed past the pegasus' wings, past Apostle Sanaki's startled face, and slammed through the gap in Sigrun's armor, straight into her heart.  
Sanaki screamed. Tanith cried out in alarm. Sigrun gasped and slumped, and her pegasus startled. Micaiah gasped. Both Zelgius and Ike stepped forward with twin beams of energy from their sister swords launching at Dark Link. The Shadow rolled backwards, just underneath, and dropped the bow, coming to his feet with sword in hand. "You were fortunate, Apostle." he called over his shoulder. "Pray you are so lucky every time someone fires a shot at you."  
Sanaki cried in horror and Tibarn let go of Sothe. Micaiah screamed and rushed to the edge of the cliff. "_Nooo_! _Sothe_!"  
Dark Link clenched his left hand. Ike flinched, though the dark boy didn't notice. Sothe was intercepted by a black blur, and Tibarn swore. "What the—"  
Then the huge black raven flew up and dropped Sothe in a heap next to Micaiah, and the Hawk king recognized him. "Naesala, you bastard!" he shouted, transforming and shooting forward in an instant. The Raven swerved and barely dodged the enraged Hawk's violent attack.  
Sigrun's pegasus shied in alarm and Sanaki slipped from the saddle. "Apostle!" Tanith cried, trying to move to catch her, but her pegasus was startled and she couldn't get it to go down.  
Fortunately, someone was already there.  
Zelgius quickly dropped Alondite to safely catch Sanaki as Naesala dropped her down to him. Ike stepped in front of them and fired another sword beam at Dark Link, but the boy dodged again easily.  
Then, right in between them, Tibarn caught Naesala and they landed in a rolling tangle of feathers. Tibarn Reverted and stumbled off him, spinning angrily on the raven king. Almost everybody there started, however, when Naesala Reverted and fell back to Dark Link's side. "What in—" Tibarn said in shock. "By the—! Naesala, you bastard, what the—!?"  
The raven king looked tired and sad, and the bruises, wounds, and eyepatch only added to that effect. "Sorry," he said offhandedly.  
"What do you think you're doing!?" Tibarn demanded, stepping forward a pace, his fists clenched. "What the hell happened to you?"  
"Why, Tibarn!" Naesala said sarcastically. "If I didn't know better, I would think you were concerned for my health. How touching."  
Zelgius set Sanaki down gently and retrieved Alondite. The Apostle was on the verge of tears, her eyes locked on Sigrun as Tanith pulled the woman's body onto her own pegasus. On Tanith's brief check of Sigrun's pulse and the terrible little shake of her head that meant too much. "Oh Goddess... no... please. Stand down." Sanaki said miserably, lowering her eyes. "I've seen enough bloodshed today... please, no more..."  
Ike glanced at her, then back to Dark Link. "We'll retreat for now. You'd better do the same, and I mean now."  
"That is up to Lady Micaiah to decide." the king of Hyrule said, glancing back at her. She was trying hard not to cry and Sothe was trying to comfort her. "I shall fall back for now, however." He sheathed his sword again and backed up three steps, until he was just on the edge of the cliff. "Do not interfere with us. King Kilvas—return to the castle." Then the dark boy executed a perfect backflip and fell out of sight. A moment later a roar was heard and he and the dragon flew past the startled Holy Guard and into the sky.  
Naesala watched him go, then looked back at the fuming Tibarn. "Sorry." he repeated. "It's like I said before. I don't have a choice."  
"Why not?" Tibarn demanded. "You're a better fighter than that. _He_ did that to you, didn't he?"  
The Raven hesitated for a moment, then nodded.  
"Why?" the Hawk hissed. "Why would you _let_ him!?"  
"I already told you. For the same reason again, I'm not allowed to tell you why. Sorry."  
Tibarn sighed, frustrated. "...I'll spare you this time because you saved the Apostle. But next time I see you, I swear I'll tear your lungs out. Got it?"  
Naesala nodded sadly. "We'll work this out... when this is over." Then he backed up and leapt off the cliff, and moments later he flew after Dark Link and the dragon, a shifted Raven once again.  
Ike stepped forward to speak to Micaiah. "Retreat, Micaiah. I don't know how long we can hold our men back."  
"But I can't..." she whimpered. "I... can't..."  
Ike turned to Tauroneo. "I'll ask you one time; talk some sense into that girl, all right? She's losing it."  
"...We won't pursue you this time." Tauroneo said. "However, we cannot avoid this war. That is all I will say for now. And Ike...I'm sorry for this."  
"What is wrong with you people..." Ike muttered. Then he turned and walked back. Sanaki was right behind him, and Zelgius and Tibarn behind her.

_"Idiot."_  
_"You never said _not _to save the Apostle."  
_ _"It should have been obvious I wanted her _dead_, considering I had just attempted to kill her."  
_ _"...I apologize. It won't happen again..."  
_ _"It had better not, King Kilvas. My patience is wearing thin."  
_ _"I...know... I'm sorry."  
_ _"What did you tell the hawk king?"  
"...Nothing...nothing he couldn't have figured out on his own..."_

_Courage was near. I know it. I felt his pain when I used my powers._ _I'm close! If only I could find Wisdom... but he is not an easy one to find. My only chance is to continue assisting Daein and hope that I can locate him...  
__And Courage. I am convinced he is someone close to Ike and Zelgius. But who...? It cannot be one of the Alteans they travel with, nor that girl's man, for I would have sensed it in the Kauku Caves.  
__Or perhaps the Apostle of Begnion carries it. If that is the case, then perhaps it is wise that the raven king saved her. Hmm..._


	15. XIV

**Author's Note:  
**_I'm really sorry for the lengthy delay in updating! I've been suffering from writer's block...Still, here's Chapter 14! Hope you enjoy, and I'll try to update more frequently...Enjoy! (Also reviews would be/are appreciated...)  
~DarkieDucessa_

**~Chapter Fourteen**

_November 21__st__, 648.  
_ "All right, Soren. What's the situation?" Ike asked.  
"It's awful." his small staff officer informed him ominously. "The Begnion Central Army has almost been completely obliterated and the Crimean Royal Knights Elincia sent with us are almost all dead. On top of that, the oil that Daein used has injured the Holy Guards' pegasi and all but grounded them."  
"Yeah, I think awful fits." Ike said regretfully. "Thoughts, everyone?"  
"Thoughts?!" Skrimir said incredulously. "Daein must answer for this! We attack them immediately!"  
"We can't." Zelgius said flatly. "If we fought Daein now, it would be impossible to take on the Senate's forces."  
"I agree with him." Ranulf added. "We have to get Daein to listen to us."  
"Confusion is exactly what Dark—what Dark Link and the Senate wants. Daein is merely a pawn in their scheme." Sanaki said tiredly, her eyes red from crying. "But there is one thing I do not understand. Why use such horrible tactics? Oil and—and fire? What is that—that girl Micaiah thinking?"  
"I can't help but wonder if it was Dark Link's suggestion." Ranulf said. "He seems the type to use those tactics, but Micaiah...? It's not like her—at least, from what I've heard, anyway."  
Ike glanced around and noticed Tibarn had an odd expression on his face. "Tibarn...?" he asked quietly.  
"I don't understand..." the Hawk muttered, more to himself than to Ike. "Why would he fight for Dark Link and then let that boy torture him like that..."  
Just then, they heard a commotion outside. Ike frowned and left the room to see a Crimean pegasus knight land in a crumpled heap in the center of the fortress, her pegasus collapsing beneath her. "What the—?"  
Zelgius walked up behind him. "I don't recall Elincia sending any pegasus knights with us." he remarked.  
Ike left the laguz and Zelgius there and ran down to the crumpled knight. She tried to get up as he approached, but fell down again from exhaustion. Her pegasi's wings were red with blood. "General..." she mumbled.  
He knelt down beside her and supported her. "What happened?" he demanded. "You were supposed to stay in Melior. Is there a message...?"  
"Dark Link..." she said weakly as Zelgius caught up to them. "He's taken Melior... Crimea has fallen..." And then she fainted.  
"What!?" Ike demanded, but she was unconscious. "Dark Link...? No!"

_"You have a job for me...?"_  
_"Yes, Raven. In light of your recent... failure... I decided I had to test your loyalties. There is one who I would rather have some control over."  
_ _"...Tibarn?"  
_ _"Yes. The hawk king is too unpredictable for my liking. So... we need a way to keep him at bay, should he try anything foolish... I think you know what I mean."  
_ _"...Not... not them..."  
_ _"Yes. Them."  
_

"What do we do?" Ike asked when he and Zelgius had informed the others of the pegasus knight's message. "Should we turn back to help Elincia, or keep going to Begnion?"  
"That presents the same problem we had before." Soren stated. "If we turn back now, we won't be able to fight the Senate's forces. Our only choice is to keep going on to Begnion. Once that is under control, we can divert our attention to Crimea."  
"But we can't just abandon Queen Elincia!" Ranulf insisted. "We have to rescue her at least, before she's captured!"  
"I agree with Ranulf." Zelgius stated. "Perhaps a small group of us could fall back and meet up with the queen, and then rejoin us before we march on Begnion."  
"And what if Micaiah tries to pull the same trick she did in the pass again?" Sanaki asked. "They would be destroyed."  
"Then we'll just have to distract Micaiah so she doesn't get the chance." Ike said darkly. "I agree with Zelgius. I'll take the Greil Mercenaries back to meet with Queen Elincia. Zelgius and the rest of you can keep Daein distracted." "Are you sure?" Ranulf asked reluctantly. "If Micaiah attacks us while you're gone, we'll be in a worse situation than before..."  
"Then I'll go in secret." Ike replied. "It shouldn't take longer than a few weeks. I'll leave at once. Any objections?" Nobody spoke.  
"...Very well." Zelgius said evenly after a pause. "It is decided."  
There was another pause between them as the others left the room. "Who will take Elena?" Zelgius finally asked.  
"You should." Ike said. "My way's more dangerous."  
"Except that I will be commanding the Laguz Alliance and Begnion forces against the Daein army, whilst you'll mainly be an escort for Queen Crimea." Zelgius reasoned.  
"But while you'll be fighting more lenient enemies like Micaiah, I'll be fighting Dark Link."  
"If you fight him at all. He may not care about her any longer. From what the girl said, he already has what he wanted from her."  
"Except that I won't be able to leave her behind at a base camp; I'll be going into enemy territory, while you'll always have someone behind to watch her."  
"Hmm. Good point. ...She'll go with me, then?"  
"I think that's best. Good luck, love."

Leanne had decided to take a flight. Everything was so boring and quiet back in the camp, but the cool Daein air was invigorating, and she felt like she hadn't properly flown in weeks. She knew she probably should have told someone where she was going, but then she knew Tibarn and Reyson would have insisted on sending guards and escorts with her, and she really just wanted to be alone. She wondered how the meeting was going. Tibarn had told her to stay safely in her tent while he spoke with the others, but to be honest she wanted to be there and ask about Naesala. Tibarn had offhandedly mentioned the Raven being there but had refused to elaborate further, despite her pleads.  
She landed on a rocky outcropping and stretched her arms. "(I wonder where Naesala is.)" she said aloud impetuously.  
"(Right here.)" was the quiet reply.  
She started and whipped around to see the Raven himself, standing not far from her. She nearly cried when she saw the sad state he was in. "(Naesala! Oh my Goddess... what have they done to you!?)" she whimpered. "(Oh my Goddess...)"  
"He's done exactly what he wanted to." he said bitterly. "What he thought was necessary."  
"(How—I—Why are you here?)" she asked.  
He sighed deeply. "Leanne... Believe me when I say, I _never_ wanted any of this to happen. Everything I've done has led me to this point, where I have no choice in what I do any longer."  
Leanne stepped a pace towards him. "(I don't understand...)" she said softly.  
Naesala averted his eyes and his guard slipped for just a moment. Leanne took the opportunity and looked into him deeply, and she was startled by what she saw there. "(You're here to... kidnap me.)" she whispered. "(Dark Link sent you.)"  
He nodded almost imperceptibly. "(Will you do it?)" she asked.  
"Leanne..." he said mournfully. "I don't have a choice any more. I have no choice. Believe me."  
"(You always cared about us before.)" she said, her mind in a whirl. "(But now... now you would...)"  
"...If I had a choice, I would leave you alone." he said quietly. "But...I do this now...for the sake of my people. Please... don't make this harder for either of us than it has to be."  
"(Will he kill me...?)" she asked softly.  
"He only wants you to keep Tibarn from doing anything stupid." he replied. "Nothing more. I promise, he won't hurt you."  
"(...Naesala...I...)"  
He stepped forward suddenly and took her arm, pulling her next to him. "Pretend this is a dream." he murmured. "A bad dream that you're waiting to wake up from."  
"(And won't any time soon.)" It was a statement.  
"Yes. Don't let go, Princess. And please...don't scream."

"All right, guys." Ike said, checking his equipment one last time; Ragnell and a vulnerary. That was all he needed, really. The Greil Mercenaries were gathered before him, in the main yard of the fortress. "Are we ready?"  
Titania nodded. "We're ready."  
"Awaiting your order, sir." Soren stated.  
Just then, Tibarn and Reyson left the building and approached Ike quickly. "Reyson?" Ike asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"  
"Have you seen Leanne?" the heron prince quickly asked, ignoring Ike's question.  
"Er... no, I thought she was in her tent." the mercenary replied. "Why?"  
"She's gone."

It was twilight by the time Dark Link returned to his mountain fortress in the mountains bordering Crimea and Begnion. The raven king was out on the mission he had set to him, and now the Shadow's current task was to pick up a few things to relocate to Melior.  
The city had weathered his attack well, and Dark Link had enough humans and hylians under his command to avoid alarming the populace with monstrous soldiers on guard duty. The city's life was relatively unchanged—Dark Link had seen to that. He would rather avoid spoiling this continent, as he had Akaneia.  
He landed in the courtyard and slid off Shard's back, patting the dragon once before sweeping into the main hall, the doors swinging shut behind him. His guest was sitting in a chair near to Dark Link's throne, reading a thick tome. His guard stood silently behind him, black armor glistening slightly in the torchlight.  
He glanced up as the Shadow entered. "Back again?" he asked quietly.  
"Did you think I would not return?" Dark Link challenged, walking forward to sit on his throne.  
"No." the Heron replied, "but I thought you were in Daein, with the Maiden of Dawn."  
"I'm certainly not her babysitter." the Shadow said stiffly. "I only ever supervised her on the Senate's behalf. Something I'm surprised you have not challenged yet."  
"It's not like I have much of a choice in the matter." his guest said. "Despite what you claim, I am a prisoner in a cell with invisible bars."  
"Why, my lord." Dark Link said mockingly. "I have told you that you are free to go."  
"Why this, then?" The Heron gestured to his black wings, which were crossed all over with faint, slightly glowing red lines—the only indication of the magical binding that Dark Link had placed upon them.  
"Ah, but of course." The Shadow laughed slightly. "As you say...Lord Sephiran."  
He glanced at the tome in the Heron's hands curiously. "What is it that you're reading?"  
In response, he held up the book to show Dark Link the cover. The Shadow stiffened slightly at the sight of the familiar mark. "I was curious as to how a mark could command such power, so I decided to research it." Sephiran confessed. "However, I haven't been able to find out much. Other than it was once a symbol of the Goddess Ashunera, but mysteriously vanished from record after the Great Flood."  
"...It is called the Triforce." Dark Link said quietly. "And the mark only represents what the object is in a whole."  
Sephiran closed the book. "And what is that object?"  
"...Let me tell you a story." the Shadow said, closing his eyes. "Long, long ago, the three Golden Goddesses came down to the chaotic lands of Hyrule. Din, the Goddess of Power, whose strength lay in fire, which she used to forge the red earth. Nayru, the Goddess of Wisdom, who bathed the land in her wisdom and brought order out of chaos. And Farore, that Goddess of Courage, who protected that order and, from her great heart, brought life to the world. When these tasks were completed and it was time for the three Goddesses to return to Heaven, they left behind the Triforce, sealed within the Sacred Realm. Legend says that the Triforce will grant the wishes of anyone who holds it."  
Sephiran frowned. "Is that the Hylian story of creation? Odd. The Tellius one is something rather different."  
"What is the Tellius story of creation?" Dark Link asked, opening his eyes to regard the Heron curiously. "I have not heard it."  
"In the very beginning of this world..." Sephiran began, "...there was only water, until one day a girl appeared. The girl was very clever, and she forged the first land... then she made trees and flowers, and then she created beings. At first, the girl was excited by her new world, and she thought of little else. Then she started feeling lonely. Everyone, every being she'd created, was different from her. Not a single person that could truly understand her. All alone, she grew sadder and sadder, crying for thousands of years. Then some creatures began to grow and change, becoming more clever and sophisticated. They tried to comfort the girl and eventually grew closer to her... That was the birth of the Zunanma. They were our ancestors... Beorc, laguz, everyone. The Zunanma worshiped the girl as their own goddess. They said her hair was as striking a color as dawn's first light, so they gave her a name... The Goddess of Dawn. The Zunanma continued to evolve and change, giving rise to a variety of races and tribes across the land. Naturally, each of the races thought their own was superior to the others, and conflict arose between them. The Goddess tried to make peace among her people, but nothing could stop the warring Zunanma. Trying to separate the factions, the Goddess gave them different names, Laguz and Beorc... But this only intensified their conflict. And then...the Great Flood occurred. The Goddess was only trying to bring an end to the fighting. But her power was so great that all the continents were drowned in the Flood, all except Tellius... or so we believed until recently."  
"Hmm." Dark Link frowned thoughtfully. "I have heard that story before, in a sense, but it was changed. The Goddess was called Hylia, and the base race, the Zunanma, were called Hylians, named after their Goddess. The Great Flood was thought to have destroyed all but Hyrule. When it occurred, and all other land vanished around them, the stranded Hylians—they looked much like Beorc at this point, but their ears were pointed—fell into chaos and confusion. That was when the Golden Goddesses appeared and brought life and order to the land. At least, I think that is how it goes."  
"Does Hyrule have a legend concerning Hylia's disappearance, or the dark god?" Sephiran asked.  
Dark Link nodded. "Yes. The dark god we know was called Demise. He fought Hylia, so the stories go, and wounded her badly. In her effort to protect her people from him, she called the Great Flood, destroying both herself and Demise in the process, but saving the land from his evil forever."  
The Shadow got up and walked down to stand next to Sephiran. "Tell me, my lord Sephiran. Whose tale would you call more accurate?"  
"Tellius." he replied automatically. "But the powers of the mark and the Triforce seem to deny that logic."  
"Perhaps there was more than one girl who appeared out of the chaos, those thousands of years ago." Dark Link suggested.  
"Perhaps." Sephiran agreed. "You say that the Triforce had been sealed in the Sacred Realm. How did it fall into your possession?"  
Dark Link paused for a long moment. "...Over twenty years ago... a boy from the forest of the Kokiri, on the request of the young Princess of Hyrule, set out to recover the key to unlocking the Sacred Realm. The Princess was worried about the King of the Gerudo—a race of dark-skinned humans populated entirely by women, except for one male every one hundred years, who would be their king. She feared the King sought the Triforce, so she sent the boy to recover the Stones before the Gerudo King could. He claimed all the stones and tried to return to the castle, but by then it was too late, and the Gerudo King had burned Hyrule Castle and forced the Princess to flee. In desperation, the boy opened the Door of Time and drew the Master Sword, which sealed the gate to the Sacred Realm. But in doing so, he allowed the Gerudo King entry to the Realm, and he tried to claim the Triforce. However, another legend says that if a person whose power, wisdom, and courage were not in perfect harmony were to lay his hands on it, the Triforce would shatter into its three separate pieces. This person would keep the piece of the Triforce that represents their most developed quality, and the other two pieces would seek out a hiding place in the bodies of those chosen by destiny. When the Gerudo King touched the Triforce, it shattered into three separate Triforces. He kept Din's, the Triforce of Power. The Triforce of Wisdom, Nayru's, went to the young Princess, and the Triforce of Courage, Farore's, to the boy. They have not been reunited since."  
"And... are you the Gerudo King you speak of, then?" Sephiran asked.  
Dark Link laughed. "No; most certainly I am not that. I... am the incarnation of the boy's shadow, given life through darkness. When the boy awoke from a seven year slumber after drawing the Master Sword from its pedestal, he went on a quest to find the Seven Sages and seal away the Gerudo King within the Sacred Realm, but when he traversed a certain room of the Water Temple, he found his shadow had come to life. It attacked him. He struck it with the Master Sword, and I was born. I served the Gerudo King, nothing more."  
"...Then how are you in possession of a Triforce?" the Heron asked, slightly confused. "And how does Prince Altea have another one?"  
"...They're dead." Dark Link said flatly, looking away. "Lord Ganondorf of the Gerudo. Link, the so-called Hero of Time, the boy of the forest. ...And the princess of Hyrule. When a bearer of a Triforce dies, the Triforce leaves the body and goes on to the next suitable host, or so I have been led to believe. I have carried the Triforce of Power since the day my lord Ganondorf died, the day I claimed it from his dying body, but the other two have eluded me. For fifteen years I have sought them... it was not until I discovered Altea that I realized how they had been hidden for so long."  
"...Why is it you seek the Triforce?" Sephiran asked curiously. "Why do you search for it so desperately, to the ends of the earth?"  
Dark Link didn't answer. He walked out the door and slammed it shut behind him.  
Sephiran sighed and leaned back in his chair. His wings ached, and he could still feel the dark knight's gaze. "Oh, go do something else." he said, annoyed.  
The knight didn't move; Sephiran sighed again, more regretfully.

_Why did I tell him about the Triforce?_ Dark Link wondered as he walked down to the dungeons, after his talk with the Prime Minister. _I suppose it's not like he could tell anyone else, but... I shouldn't get in the habit of spilling my secrets. Perhaps it's those Heron abilities of his...  
_ The Darknut at the door saluted as he passed. _And of course, there's the stories of creation we shared. I always thought Din, Nayru, Farore, and Hylia were the only goddesses, but now there is this one they call Ashera as well. Is that another name for one of the Hyrulean gods... Nayru, perhaps?_  
There was only one prisoner down here. Lucia was asleep when he came to her cell. He waited for just a few moments before she was awakened by his presence.  
"Don't you ever sleep?" she moaned when she saw him.  
"A waste of time." he replied. "I gave it up long ago. Get up."  
She forced herself to her feet, supporting herself against the wall and wiping some of the blood out of her eyes. "What was this for...?" she asked.  
"Not for your sake." he said flatly. "A certain Raven disobeyed me, and any further hurt on _him_ would be... impractical. So you took it instead."  
"Why me?" she asked. "We're not even friends."  
"I know all about his little visits with you. You're close enough." he replied.  
She sighed. "Why are you here, anyway?"  
"Have you seen Lord Sephiran?"  
She frowned. "Sephiran...? No." He crossed his arms.  
"Come now, my lady. I know he's come down to the dungeons several times. Did you ever see him when he did?"  
She shook her head. "No... I never saw him. Maybe he came while I was asleep."  
He sighed. "Very well. As you say."  
He turned to leave, then paused to speak again; "I believe you know a certain Count Bastian, do you not?"  
"...Yes..." she murmured hesitantly.  
"Hmm. Strange... how he has not been seen for so long." Then he left.  
She sat down again, sighing slightly. _What was that about...?  
_

It was a few hours later when Lucia heard the door open again. She looked up and started when she saw Naesala, a limp white bundle in his arms. "My Goddess, is that a Heron?" she asked incredulously.  
"Yes." the Raven replied mournfully, walking to the cell next to hers. "I hate myself now for it, but yes, it is a Heron."  
Lucia watched him set the laguz down and recognized Princess Leanne. "Why?"  
"Dark Link thinks that Tibarn is too unpredictable... so..." He looked down at Leanne and sighed. "Goddess, the things I do... how did it come to this...?"  
"You had no choice, or so you say." Lucia replied, though the question wasn't directed at her. "I think there is a choice for everything."  
"There is." he said sadly. "I made my choice a long time ago and now this is the only one I have left. Tell her that... when she wakes up."  
He left the princess's cell and closed the door, locking it. "Can I ask you something?" she said.  
"I may not be able to answer, but go ahead." he replied.  
"Dark Link mentioned Bastian earlier. Why?"  
"You ask 'why' a lot." Naesala paused for a long moment before answering. "King Hyrule... has been taking control of the lands in Crimea. He's already taken almost all of the castles and he's silenced any visible rebellion or resentment. ...Just yesterday, he took Fayre. That's all I can think of. Sorry I couldn't be of more help."  
"Oh, no, that's all right." she said. "Thanks anyway."  
"You're welcome." Then he left.  
Lucia glanced over at the cell next to her, where the delicate heron princess sprawled out on the ground, sleeping peacefully. It seemed odd. Leanne must have been kidnapped from Gallia, or the Apostle's army that Naesala had told her about, and yet here the girl was, seemingly content. _How can she even sleep?_ Lucia wondered. _I couldn't, not for days after I was captured._  
The Heron, she decided, must know something that she didn't.

_"The prisoners escaped."  
_ _"Then... ah, but I suppose this is farewell, my friend. I no longer have the funds to afford thee."  
_ _"..."  
_ _"Tis' a pity that our mission was not completed first. Curse that Shadow, the one they name Dark Link! If only he hadn't...um...What are you doing?"  
_ _"Izuka went this way. We'll catch him if we hurry."  
_ _"But... I cannot afford thy services any longer...!"  
_ _"I'll take it as credit. Just this once."  
_ _"...Thank you, my friend. Forward, then! And may we dodge the demons of the Shadow to track the monster down before he inflicts more harm upon the land!"  
_ _"Just give me the map."_

_"What is it you need, my lord?"  
_ _"William. I didn't intend to ask for you again. This may put the terms of our agreement in jeopardy. Are you still willing to obey my orders?"  
_ _"...I am at your service, my lord. As I promised."  
_ _"Ah...Thank you, William. It's time to make our move."_

_November 28__th__, 648. Castle Nox.  
_ "A rebellion in the empire?!" Tauroneo asked incredulously. "Is that true?"  
"Yes." Sothe replied. "The empire has been thrown into chaos since Prime Minister Sephiran apparently escaped from his imprisonment. He's incited the peasants by asking, 'Who should you believe in? The Senate, or the Apostle?'"  
"And the people have chosen the Apostle, correct?"  
"Yes." Sothe said again. "They're rioting in the capital day and night, demanding answers. The Senate is busy trying to quell the masses."  
"This is great news!" Tauroneo smiled faintly. "If we were to forge and alliance between Daein and the Apostle's supporters in Begnion—"  
"That is not a wise choice." The two of them turned to see King Pelleas enter the room, his young bodyguard right behind him. "The curse on the blood pact will begin killing our people as soon as we do anything the senate doesn't care for. Defeating the senate doesn't guarantee the curse will be broken either. In fact, it may ensure it can never be broken. In which case, Daein's destruction will come more slowly, but it will come nonetheless."  
Sothe sighed in frustration. "So, we can't attack the senate, and we can't ask for help. The only thing we can do is search for a way to get rid of the curse. This is driving me crazy..."  
"If we could only contact the Apostle... But if the senate heard a word of it, they'd destroy us. Our hands are tied." Tauroneo said mournfully.  
"Luckily for us, that's not true. I have some good news, for a change." Pelleas said, his face brightening slightly. "I found a way to break the blood pact. Where is Micaiah? Please bring her here."  
"You discovered how to break it?!" Sothe asked excitedly. "I'll get her right away."  
The bodyguard waited until Sothe had left before he quietly asked; "Do you want me to leave, your Majesty?"  
"No, Mars..." Pelleas replied. "Stay. You... you already know about this, anyway. Might as well stay for the end..."

"You can't be serious, your Majesty!" Micaiah cried incredulously.  
"But I am." Pelleas replied calmly. "Don't you see? This is the way to save Daein."  
"I must ask you to reconsider, my king." Tauroneo said. "There has to be another way. There must be!"  
"We can't afford to wait for another solution to present itself. We have to try." Pelleas insisted.  
"...I cannot go through with it." Micaiah declared.  
"Micaiah, the life of every single person in Daein depends on this! If it works, we can stop fighting this absurd war." Pelleas said. "It will be all right. I know this will work! Please do this for me, Micaiah."  
"I can't! I thought I made up my mind... I thought I'd do anything for Daein! But then I saw Sothe taken from me, and I saw him fall... I was powerless to do anything!" she cried. "I'd taken so many lives as a general, and yet, when I thought of Sothe dead..."  
"Even if it hadn't been Sothe in front of you, you would have reacted the same way." Pelleas said kindly. "That's the kind of person you are."  
He turned and walked a few steps away, looking up at the window high above. "Individual lives taken before your eyes weigh more heavily than the many lives taken during the chaos of war. If that life is someone dear, the burden is even worse. It's only human. Isn't that true?"  
He paused. "...Micaiah. It's your caring soul that I admire. That's why I want it to be you." He turned back around to face them, and his voice was decisive and firm. "I want you to kill me."  
"...No, I can't! I can't do it! Don't make me do this, please!" she cried desperately.  
"'The blood pact breaks when the pact-maker is killed by a third party.' That is exactly how it's written." Pelleas stated. "This is the only way to save Daein."  
"Please!" Micaiah begged. "Please don't ask me to do such a horrible thing."  
"This is my duty as king, Micaiah!" Pelleas declared. "If you won't do it, I must ask someone else!"  
"Your Majesty." a calm and quiet voice said. It was the first time most of them had heard Mars speak. "What if your information is incorrect?"  
"...We can't take that chance, Mars." Pelleas said.  
"Why not?" the bodyguard challenged. "Why can't we take a chance...?"  
"We just can't!" Pelleas snapped. "You know that."  
There was a long pause. "I—I'm sorry." Micaiah finally said. "I can't..."  
"...Very well. General Tauroneo..." Pelleas said quietly.  
Tauroneo nodded, understanding instantly. He walked up and stood before Pelleas, and the young king offered him the knife he'd been holding.  
The general took it reluctantly. "I hope you're certain about this."  
Pelleas nodded. "I am sure. General... Please look after the people of Daein."  
"Yes...your Majesty." the general replied.  
"Mars." Pelleas looked over at his guard. "You were just a mercenary, and then I got you all tangled up in this... for that, I apologize. Please...take care of yourself." Mars' nod was barely perceptible.  
"Sothe." Pelleas continued, turning to the rogue. "I'm sorry for all that I put you and Micaiah through, including this. Please forgive me."  
"Don't worry about that now, Pelleas." Sothe said quietly.  
"Micaiah." he finally said, turning back to her and holding out a small gold ring. "Please give this ring to my mother. Tell her that I loved her dearly."  
"...I will, your Majesty." she said, her voice thick with emotion as she took the ring from him.  
"Good-bye, my friends." Pelleas closed his eyes. Tauroneo lifted the dagger and prepared to stab.  
"..._No_!" Micaiah suddenly shouted. "This is wrong!" Before anybody else even registered she had moved, she was rushing to Pelleas.  
But someone else had sensed her motives, perhaps even shared them—and he moved even faster. Mars shoved Pelleas out of the way just as the dagger went down. The blade went straight into him, barely missing his heart, and he jerked in pain.  
The other four gasped. "What the—Mars!?" Pelleas cried.  
Mars slumped to his knees as Tauroneo pulled the dagger out and Micaiah froze, her eyes wide with horror. Blood spattered the floor. Pelleas fell down to one knee beside his bodyguard. "Your Majesty..." Mars said weakly. "I...won't let you...die...like this..."  
"Wha—?"  
"Mars, wait!" Micaiah fell to her knees and placed a hand over the wound. "I can—"  
"Mars! Why!?" Pelleas suddenly shouted. "Why did you do that!? It—this is the only way to save Daein!"  
"No...it's not..." Mars gasped, fast losing consciousness. "Lady Micaiah...is...right...listen...to her..."  
Micaiah's hand started glowing and Mars shuddered slightly as she transferred some of her life-force into him. The wound closed beneath her fingers, the blood stopped flowing even as she weakened. She finished Sacrifice and fell backwards into Sothe's arms as Mars' breathing returned to a more normal pace.  
"Micaiah..." Pelleas said. "Are you alright...?"  
"I...yes." she mumbled weakly. "He sensed it...even before I did. There...There is another way! There is...there must be...I...I can see..." She closed her eyes.  
"Micaiah! Hey, Micaiah! Wake up!" Sothe called. The girl was fast asleep.  
Pelleas looked from Micaiah to Mars and back, a faint smile on his face. "Mars...Micaiah...Thank you..."

_"...Hnhh!"  
_ _"What's wrong?"  
"I—just now, I—something's happened to my brother."  
_ _"The crown prince?"  
_ _"Yes... he... I felt it, he was hurt..."  
_ _"...Where is he?"  
_ _"He's...in Daein..."  
_ _"All right. Let's go there."  
_ _"...What?"  
_ _"You heard me. If he's in trouble, you should go to him."  
_ _"But... the Shadow..."  
_ _"...Is probably the reason he's hurt, which is all the more reason to help him."  
_ _"Ah...you're right, Stefan. Will you come with me?"  
_ _"Of course, Li-cae. I will remain at your side for as long as you want me."  
_ _"Thank you..."_

_"...Unhh!"  
_ _"What is it?"  
_ _"Marth... he's...something's happened, he's hurt!"  
"What? How?"  
_ _"I don't know... I just suddenly... sensed something. ...We have to go to him."  
_ _"But—we're trapped here, you know that!"  
__"Then we'll just have to figure a way out! I have to go to him!"  
__"Calm down, Roy! How is it you can sense him, anyway?"_  
_"Your Majesty, you don't...I need...Elice Caeda would...!"_


	16. XV

**~Chapter Fifteen**

_ November 29th, 648._

"One question, Ike." Soren said quietly. "Did you even _think_ about this plan before deciding on it?"

Ike shrugged. "It seemed like a good idea at the time..."

The Greil Mercenaries were at Riven Bridge... or at least, what _used _to be Riven Bridge. It had been destroyed; there was nothing left of it but a few jagged stones on the cliff edges. Hylians stood guard on the other side.

Ike was hanging on a rope, about halfway down the cliff on Daein's side; Soren was next to him, and questioning his plan—which was to climb down to the bottom, swim across, and go up the other side.

"This plan makes no sense at all," Soren said. "If anything, we won't be able to bring the horses, and not all of us can swim anyway."

"Well, we don't have much choice, do we?" Ike demanded, going down a bit further. "There isn't any other way across."

"We could've gone back and gotten Haar and Jill and had them fly us across."

"Time is of the essence, Soren! We can't delay another two weeks!"

"Sometimes delay is necessary in order to carry out a plan!"

"Boys!" Titania slid down her own rope next to them. "This isn't the time or place to argue. Now, Mist had an idea while you two were down here arguing."

Ike spread his free hand out. "By all means, let's hear it."

"Shinon, Rolf and Deirdre could snipe the guards on the other side, and then we could shoot ropes across and shimmy across that way."

"That still presents the problem of no horses," Soren reminded her.

"It's better than trying to swim, or whatever it is you two were planning." she countered.

Ike sighed. "Well, let's see if they can snipe everyone on the other side first..." He glanced down at the stormy sea and river below. "But I will admit, that sounds like a better prospect than mine."

"Then climb back up and we'll give it a shot," she replied. "Literally, that is."

There were nine Hylian guards on the other side. Four of them had access to an alarm bell, which would probably summon a lot more. Six of them patrolled out of sight of the others.

Shinon shot first. He took out two of the patrollers with two shots. Rolf did the same. Deirdre sniped one; that left four, the ones that could reach the alarm. Everyone else was tense.

Rolf shot; the last patroller went down. Then they all fired, to take out the last three.

Shinon and Rolf hit their targets; Deirdre missed.

The Hylian yelped as his companions collapsed with arrows in them, instantly turning to go for the alarm. Deirdre sucked in a breath and looked ashamed; Shinon and Rolf were both startled and both began to draw arrows again.

Ike moved faster.

Deirdre fell back as he grabbed the bow from her hand and an arrow from the quiver; Soren looked at him incredulously, knowing Ike had no experience with a bow whatsoever.

Ike fired and the Hylian went down three inches from the alarm bell. The arrow had cleanly pierced his heart.

There was a long pause where nothing could be heard but the waves far below and Ike's heavy breathing.

"How did I just do that?" he finally asked, looking at the bow in his hands incredulously.

"You tell me," Titania replied, her eyes wide.

He glanced over at the archers. Rolf was in wide-eyed shock; Shinon was glaring at him; Deirdre looked lost and confused.

Ike looked at his right hand; a bit of green could be seen glowing through the glove. "Beginner's luck?" he suggested.

Crossing to the other side was fairly simple after that. Shinon shot a rope across, firmly securing it to their side first, and then Rolf (the lightest besides Mist, but more agile) scurried across and more surely secured the rope on the other side.

Shinon and Deirdre were in the back as the others began to cross. Deirdre still hadn't spoken.

"Deirdre," Shinon finally said, "don't do this to yourself."

"But I almost ruined the whole mission!" she said worriedly. "If Ike hadn't taken that shot—"

"Then me or Rolf would've gotten it instead." Shinon interrupted. "But it was a hard shot; just because you missed once doesn't mean you suck."

"But it was the most important shot..!" she fretted.

He put a hand on her shoulder. "Listen; even if he'd sounded the alarm, we would've just retreated a bit, and if anyone else got there they would've thought we were long gone by then. We would've lost a few hours, but the mission would've still gone on. Okay?"

She sighed slightly and looked at the Silencer, which Ike had returned. "I... I'm just not sure I'm worthy to—"

Shinon raised his bow warningly. "None of that, now." he said sternly.

She managed a weak smile. "O-of course, Sensei. Sorry."

In the courtyard of Castle Crimea, Dark Link was practicing archery. Out of eleven arrows, he'd gotten one in the bullseye and seven in the inner circle. Three were a bit wider. He fired his twelfth then and got the inner circle again. Cursing under his breath, he put the bow back in his bag and walked forward to retrieve the arrows.

He heard flapping and a light landing behind him, and he knew who it was. "King Kilvas."

"Practicing archery?" the Raven asked contemplatively, walking around to where Dark Link had stood and judging the target. "I wouldn't have thought you needed it."

"Everyone needs practice, sometimes." the Shadow replied cautiously, retrieving his arrows. "But enough of that. Why are you here?"

"You sent for me."

"Ah, yes." Dark Link walked back to his firing point and drew the bow again. "I need you to deliver something to King Phoenicis."

"Tibarn? Why?"

The Shadow fired twice; each one hit the inner circle. "That is none of your concern."

"It isn't...?"

Another two shots pierced the air, slamming into the inner circle. "If you insist." Dark Link pulled a note out of his pocket and handed it to Naesala. "This is what you'll deliver. You may read it first."

As Dark Link returned to shooting, Naesala opened the note and read it;

_To King Phoenicis;_

_ Your attempts to interfere with my plans have gone on long enough. I have the Heron princess. Cease to aid Crimea and withdraw your soldiers from the Apostle's army, or it will not go well for her._

_ I have heard that she is the last female Heron alive. 'Twould be a pity if she were—injured._

_ Most sincerely,_

_ King Dark Link of Hyrule_

The tenth arrow slammed on the edge of the bullseye as Naesala lowered the note in disbelief. "You can't be serious."

"I am perfectly serious."

"Tibarn will kill me if I give this to him!"

The eleventh arrow joined the tenth. "You can tell him that she'll be tortured if you don't return."

"I... I can't..."

"You... _can't?"_ The bow lowered for an instance as Dark Link turned to look at him, one eyebrow raised.

"N-no!" The Raven quickly corrected himself; "Of course, I can... but if I tell him she'll be tortured, that'll just make him angrier..."

"It is the truth." The Shadow turned back to the target and raised his bow, drawing it back. "You say you will do anything I order. This is an order. Carry it out, and don't test my patience, or else..."

The twelfth arrow slammed dead-center.

It was getting dark, out in the open fields of Crimea. The Greil Mercenaries were hiding out in an abandoned barn, taking cover from the aerial patrols that flew by occasionally.

"You do realize that we have no idea where Elincia and the Royal Knights are?" Soren asked.

"Well, yes, but I'm sure she must have gotten the same idea we did," Ike replied, "of meeting up with the Apostle's Army. Hopefully she's somewhere nearby."

"But obviously Dark Link thought of that too," Titania said. "He destroyed the bridge... Elincia might've seen that, and though to go somewhere else—like Gallia, for instance."

"If she were going to Gallia, chances are Reyson and Rafiel would've seen her before they flew up to Daein." Ike reasoned. "So she must still be around the countryside somewhere."

"Unless she's been captured." Soren stated flatly. "We must take that possibility into account."

Ike nodded reluctantly. "Yes... but we still won't abandon them unless we have no other choice."

Reyson, Tibarn, Janaff, and Ulki were up on a hill, looking out at the barest traces of light over the distant mountains, where the sun had set hours ago.

"I've looked everywhere, m'lord." Janaff said reluctantly. "She isn't within a hundred miles of here. I don't know where she could have gone."

"Then where could she be?" Reyson asked. The other Hawk just shrugged.

Ulki suddenly froze in place, appearing to be concentrating on something. Then he said; "King Kilvas is coming."

The other three started. "What!?" Tibarn demanded. "Why would he be coming here?"

"I don't know, my lord, but he just said that he would be here in a few minutes."

Janaff frowned, looking off towards Crimea. "I think I see him," he said after a moment. "But why would he be coming here?"

Tibarn was quietly fuming. They waited.

The blue-black Raven finally came down, Reverting and landing in front of them. Reyson started violently. "Naesala! What the hell?"

Naesala glanced over at him apologetically. "Reyson. Sorry to have to see you again like this."

"I told you I would tear your lungs out, traitor." Tibarn spat. "What's to make me think I shouldn't?"

The Raven sighed and pulled a note out of his pocket. "Read this first," he said, offering it to him.

Tibarn stepped forward cautiously and took it, unfolding it quickly. He couldn't see well in the low light, but he managed to make out enough to make him scream in rage and crumple the note in his hands, tossing it aside angrily. Reyson stepped back in surprise.

"You_ bastard!"_ the Hawk king shouted. "You scheming, traitorous _bastard!"_

"Tibarn, what is it?" Reyson asked. He picked up the abandoned note and opened it, and after a moment he was on the verge of screaming too.

Naesala stepped back. "I'm sorry, but it was his orders and I had no choice."

"You expect me to _believe_ that!?" Tibarn demanded angrily.

"No, but I—"

"_No!_ Your excuses have gone on long enough!" The Hawk king stormed forward, grabbing Naesala's right arm and wrenching it back before the Raven could get away. "I want answers and I want them _now!"_

Naesala yelped and struggled to pull away, but Tibarn wasn't letting go this time. "I can't tell you!" he shouted.

"Then I'll break your neck right here!"

"If you do, Leanne will be hurt!"

"Lying again to get away?" Reyson spat contemptuously.

"I—I had no choice!" Naesala insisted.

"Then I'll just have to give you one!" Tibarn wrenched his arm the wrong way and there was an audible snap. Naesala did his best not to cry out. "You tell me now, or I'll be sending you back to Dark Link in pieces!"

"I can't—"

Tibarn kicked him in the legs and dropped him; Naesala fell to the ground, painfully twisting his arm the right way again. Tibarn cracked his knuckles and the Raven looked up weakly. "Reyson, please believe me!" the Raven pleaded. "I had no choice!"

Reyson scoffed, an expression of pure hatred on his face. "You're despicable. I can't believe I ever thought you would change!"

There was a long moment of silence—and then Naesala hung his head in defeat. "I—I wasn't lying." he said tiredly. "Dark Link... will torture Leanne if I don't go back. I—Yes, I kidnapped her, but he told me it was so you wouldn't do anything stupid...not...he promised he wouldn't hurt her..."

"And you believed him?" Tibarn snarled.

"I—Even if I hadn't, I would've had to do it anyway." Naesala replied. "He has a—he has a blood pact, if that means anything to you..."

"A what?" Reyson demanded.

"A blood pact..." Naesala forced himself to stand up again. "Ask your dear Apostle about that one—or maybe even General Zelgius—but I beg you, don't do anything that would indicate I told you that, or _he_ might find out. I—I can't tell you any more than that, but if they know what it is, then you'll understand I really didn't have a choice...and you would've done the same." Before any of the others could respond, he backed up and jumped off the hill; a moment later he was flying away as the raven.

"Should we go after him, m'lord?" Janaff asked.

Tibarn paused, then shook his head. "I don't want to risk Leanne being hurt." Another brief pause. "Go wake up the Apostle—and Zelgius too, actually. Tell them I need to speak to them immediately."

Janaff and Ulki nodded, quickly flying away. "You think he was telling the truth?" Reyson asked quietly.

"I don't know," Tibarn replied, "but I intend to find out."

Sanaki sighed as she entered the meeting tent, where the others were already gathered. "What could you possibly want at this hour?" she demanded tiredly.

In response, Tibarn tossed her the note that Naesala had given him. She caught it and opened it warily, then read it fast. A moment later she set it down and asked "Will you do it?"

"Seems like I don't have a choice." the Hawk king replied bitterly. "What's a blood pact?"

The question startled her. "W-why do you want to know?" she stuttered.

"Naesala said that Dark Link has one, and that was why he 'had no choice.' What was he talking about?"

The Apostle paused for a long moment. "I don't know much about them," she finally said, "only what I heard, and what I could get the Senate to tell me."

"What is it, then?" Reyson asked quickly.

"Maybe it would be best described... in a story I heard about it." She took a deep breath. "Long ago, a king signed a blood pact with the Empire to take back his lost kingdom. In exchange for his country, he vowed complete obedience. He soon broke the terms of the pact and began to disobey the Empire. And...then...the pact took effect. One man died on the first day. Two more died on the second day. Three more on the third day. I think you can see where this is going. The wave of mysterious deaths spread across the kingdom like a contagion... or a plague. By the thirtieth day, the king was begging for mercy... but it was a hundred days before the senate lifted the curse. By then, half of his subjects had died."

"That... is the effect of the blood pact?" Reyson asked shakily. "So... if Dark Link has one for Kilvas..."

"Then if he disobeys Dark Link, Kilvas would be destroyed." Tibarn finished grimly. "Utterly destroyed. It...makes sense now.

"Oh, Goddess..." Reyson murmured, horrified. "Is there any way to destroy it?"

"Not that I know of," Sanaki replied. "Everything I heard stated that it was unbreakable."

"It isn't." The three of the turned to Zelgius. "It can be broken. If you heard that it could not from the Senate, that was probably just to frighten you."

"T-then how _do_ you break them?" the Apostle asked.

"The blood pact breaks when the pact-maker is killed by a third party..." Zelgius replied.

Reyson sighed in frustration. "Well, that doesn't help! That means we have to kill Naesala, which is what we were trying to avoid—"

"I wasn't finished." Zelgius interrupted. "When the pact-maker is killed by a third party, _and_ _the document is destroyed._ Otherwise the curse soon carries on to the successor."

"That still doesn't help," Sanaki mumbled.

"One other thing," Zelgius added after a brief pause. "The story you told, about the king and the blood pact."

"Yes, what about it?" the Apostle asked.

"That king... was the previous king of Kilvas. That blood pact was never broken... so, in all likelihood, it is the one that Naesala is under the influence of now."

Tibarn frowned. "That would mean that the senate is the one controlling Naesala, though, not Dark Link."

"It is likely that Dark Link stole the blood pact from the senate, for his own use." Zelgius replied. "Perhaps he learned a way to control it himself. Either way, however, it means that both of the original signers are dead, which might be enough so that all that needs to be done is the document itself destroyed."

"How do you know so much, anyway?" Reyson asked.

"Lord Sephiran." the general said simply.

"This still doesn't exactly help Naesala..." Tibarn muttered. "He might not know all this, even if you're right, and knowing Dark Link, he probably doesn't let that pact out of his sight, which would make it almost impossible to destroy."

"And what of you, Hawk king?" Sanaki asked. "Either way, Dark Link still has the Heron princess..."

"I know." Tibarn said darkly. "I'll have to return to Phoenicis in the morning..."

"But with any luck, we'll figure out how to send Naesala a message without Dark Link's knowing on the way there." Reyson added.

Crouching outside next to the meeting tent, Kaj backed away carefully. He went over every word of the conversation again, committing it to memory, and then slipped out of the camp.

_ December 3rd, 648._

After three days searching through eastern Crimea without a trace of the Royal Knights, Ike was starting to wonder if Elincia really _had _gone on to Gallia.

Traveling around the country, however, the Greil Mercenaries couldn't help but notice how little of Hyrule's occupation was noticeable. Certainly, most of the town guards wore Hylian armor, and there were a few more monstrous patrols, but otherwise life seemed no different than it had been when Elincia was queen. It reminded Ike sadly of Daein's occupation of Crimea three years ago—except that this time, the Greil Mercenaries were actively _in_ Crimea, still searching for Elincia, instead of fleeing with her to Begnion.

Now, after searching the countryside, Ike had no choice but to go deeper into hostile territory in his search...

The sky was heavily overcast as Ike and Soren walked through the gates of Melior. The Hylian guards at the gate gave them no trouble, and indeed, were it not for the different armor, he would've thought nothing had changed.

The damages were more apparent from the inside. Many houses had been damaged or burned; the castle could be seen up ahead, parts of the wall still undergoing repairs. The streets were almost empty, making the pair feel uncomfortably conspicuous.

Fortunately, the house they were searching for wasn't far from the gates. The Mercenaries Inn had fared better than most, and seemed unchanged, for the most part.

The two had hardly gotten to the door when it was opened from inside. The blond sage smiled when she saw them. "Commander..." Glancing around quickly, she gestured for them. "Come in, come in!"

They entered and she shut the door behind them. "Calill. Good to see you're alright." Ike said. "How are Largo and Amy?"

"They're fine..." she replied quietly. "After Hyrule occupied the castle, they sneaked out to my cousin's in the country. I stayed to help out any of the Royal Knights that managed to escape."

"Do you know where Elincia is?" Soren asked flatly.

Calill shook her head. "No, I'm sorry...I haven't had any contact with her since the occupation."

Ike cursed quietly. "Have you seen any of the Royal Knights at all?"

She nodded. "Of course. I smuggled Florina to the border so she could get a message to you, and I helped many knights get out of the city when the Hyrule Army came marching in."

"Any idea where General Geoffrey might be?" Soren asked. "Or even Prince Roy?"

She paused for a long moment. "Well... I think I heard something about Geoffrey being held captive in the castle, along with some others of the Royal Knights...and...Elincia may have been with them, but the information wasn't very detailed..."

Ike sighed. "Well, it's the only lead we have..."

"One other thing," she added. "They're going to be executed sometime tomorrow evening, I think."

"...Well, thanks, Calill." Ike said after a pause. "I'll see you soon, I hope." Then the two departed.

Calill locked the door when they left, then walked to the back room. The Raven was waiting patiently.

"Did you tell them?" he asked.

She nodded. "Exactly as you said."

"Good." He tossed her a small bag that clinked when she caught it. She poured a few of the gold pieces into her palm to examine them, then nodded. He turned to go.

"You're sure they won't come to... much harm?" she asked anxiously.

He paused, then shook his head. "No... but this is the only way."

_ December 4th, 648._

That evening, Dark Link was in the throne room of Castle Crimea. It had formerly been the throne room, anyway, but now he had converted it into more of a study. He sat at his desk where the throne had formerly been, writing out his orders to his various forces with a black-feathered quill pen. Shard sat nearby, cleaning himself much like a cat would. The room reeked of blood, but the Shadow couldn't care less.

Just then, one of the Hylian guards raced into the room, a panicked expression on his face. "(My lord!)"

Dark Link glanced up and sighed slightly. "(What is it this time?)"

"(Intruders in the castle, sir!)"

"(Wipe them out, then.)" the king replied in a bored tone, glancing back down at his written orders and raising his pen slightly. "(Why bother me with such trivial matters?)"

"(One of the guards recognized them, sir—it's the Greil Mercenaries!)"

The pen slipped out of Dark Link's hands, splattering ink on the table. He didn't notice. "(Where are they now?)" he demanded, a harsh edge having crept into his voice.

"(T-they're making their way to the dungeons, sir!)"

"(Fine, then. Let them down there. I shall be along shortly.)" The guard nodded and raced off.

Dark Link stood, retrieving his sword from where it leaned against the desk. Shard stood up quickly, sensing his master's urgency.

"(This is a fortunate occurrence for us, Shard.)" the Shadow said. "(Nayru knows why they are here, but we shall take advantage of it.)"

The dragon trotted ahead of Dark Link to the balcony. The Shadow swung up on his back, and then Shard jumped off, carrying him to the courtyard below.

"Ike, I'll say it here; You have a habit of coming up with plans without even thinking about them." Soren said darkly.

Ike finished off the Hylian guard he was facing and glanced back at his tactician. "Okay, maybe I wasn't thinking about this one either! But we came here to get Elincia, right? So if she's being held captive, we have to rescue her before she's executed!" Then he raced off to deal with the next guard.

"'We don't have the troops or the resources to raid a castle,' I said." Soren mumbled bitterly, following after him. "'We don't have time to wait!' you said. 'We'll just get in there, free them, hand them weapons, and fight our way out!' you said. 'It'll be easy,' you said. Great plan!"

_ A door connecting to the throne room slowly creaked open. Naesala poked his head out and checked to see that Dark Link was really gone, then hurried to the Shadow's desk._

_ "Where is it, where is it..." he mumbled, searching through the loose papers on the top. "It has to be here somewhere...!"_

Deirdre yelped slightly as an arrow took her in the shoulder, falling back against the wall. Shinon shot the offending soldier, then hurried to her. "Are you all right?" he demanded.

She pulled the arrow out, wincing painfully. "I—I'm fine," she said painfully.

He frowned, then reached in his pocket and handed her a Vulnerary. "Here."

"Thanks." She drank it, then sighed slightly in relief. "Who's plan was this, anyway? If the Shadow appears, we'll all be dead."

"Yeah, well, it was Ike's, and he ain't famous for his great plans." Shinon shot another approaching guard. "Come on, and stay close."

She nodded.

_ Naesala didn't care that he was making a mess; papers were all over the floor, but he still couldn't find the one that mattered. "Dammit!" he swore. "It has to—"_

"Look out!" Boyd shouted.

Oscar glanced up just in time to see the lizalfos bearing down on him. He barely blocked in time, then countered with his lance, finishing the beast off. "Thanks," he replied.

Boyd was hardly paying attention; he was busy defending himself from a group of attacking bulbins. Oscar switched to a javelin and moved over to him just as Boyd finished them off. "Any sign of the Shadow?" he asked.

His younger brother shook his head. "No, nothing. So far, anyway."

"Hey!" Titania shouted. "Hurry up!"

"We're coming!" Oscar called back.

Boyd ran ahead of him. "Come on!"

"I'll be right behind you!" his brother said, glancing back at a group of advancing bulbins. Boyd nodded and ran on.

The bulbins went down easy. Oscar was just about to follow his brother when a cold voice stopped him in his tracks;

"Going somewhere?"

Then he felt something slam hard into his back. Pain shot up his chest and he gasped; a moment later the agony doubled as something else hit, and then he felt cold, so... it was... too cold...

"These enemies...They're too powerful..." he said blankly, feeling his strength fading fast, his words barely making sense to him anymore. His javelin slipped out of his fingers and he fell, but he couldn't tell if he landed on anything. He could see nothing, feel nothing at all. Everything was so dark, and he thought he might not see anything ever again...and that frightened him.

"Help me..." he whimpered softly, to no one, anyone. "Boyd...R-Rolf..."

Then there was nothing.

_It was on the bottom of the bottom drawer, under a sheaf of reports and some random scribblings about some goddess-or-other. The red mark was all too familiar._

_ He sighed in relief. "yes...yes...Yes! I've found it! I have it! It's here! At last!"_

"No one." Titania swore. "Ike, there's absolutely no one down here but us! This whole thing was pointless!"

"But—" Ike protested, staring at the empty cells in disbelief. "Calill said—"

"Really, you are too trusting." a cold voice said.

The two of them spun around to see Dark Link standing at the top of the stairs, bow in hand. "You shouldn't believe every rumor you hear."

"Was it you, then?" Soren challenged, reaching for his Elwind. "You paid her to give us false information?"

The Shadow laughed. "No; I have no idea who it is you speak of, but if you honestly believe anything that anyone tells you, I'm surprised you've gotten anywhere in life."

Soren bristled; Ike drew Ragnell and leveled it at Dark Link. "Well, maybe we haven't found Elincia, but at least now I've got a shot at you." he said darkly.

"Oh? And what makes you think you can defeat me?" the Shadow asked with fake curiosity.

Ike's eyes narrowed. "You hurt my love, and for that I _will_ make you pay."

Dark Link smoothly drew the bow back, an arrow seeming to magically appear on the string, and fired. Titania barely dodged. "Well...if you are so confident with yourself, I cannot help but answer." Putting the bow away, he drew his sword and spun it confidently. "Come at me, son of Gawain. Let us see how you compare to your lover."

Ike growled and rushed forward. Soren suddenly sensed magic. "Ike, no!"

Too late; the blue-haired commander was surrounded by flame.

_ Hylian guards were trained not to react greatly to unusual noises. However, the sound of crazed laughter coming from the throne room was enough to put them ill at ease._

_ For the Raven king couldn't stop laughing. He had been fearing for his and his people's life for so long, he had forgotten what it was to be free; and now that the mark was gone forever, it seemed to him so petty and foolish that he just could not stop laughing._

Ike coughed out bits of ash and stumbled away from the fire that Dark Link had conjured about himself. The Shadow spun a small diamond-like object in his right hand, tucking it into his pouch, and then strode forward.

An arrow hit his shoulder from behind; he pulled it out and glanced back to see that Shinon, Rolf, and Deirdre had come out from where he had. "Miss me?" Shinon asked sarcastically, placing a second arrow on the bowstring.

"Ah, marksman; I see you are faring well." Dark Link replied with a false cheer. "How's the hand? I hope you don't have problems counting to ten..."

Shinon's right hand shook slightly and he took a deep breath to steady himself. "Actually, I have no problems at all. In fact, I can go all the way up to twenty... counting out the ways I'd like to kill you."

"I think you'll have a problem with that," the Shadow drawled, "but by all means, try your best. Perhaps it will be amusing."

"You might think."

Titania tightened her grip on her poleax and spread out from Ike; Soren did the same on the other side. Boyd, Gatrie, and Mia stepped out from behind the pillar supports to reinforce them; Mist and Rhys were in the back.

Dark Link turned back to face the main group. "Why, you've brought along the whole party, haven't you?" he asked sarcastically. "Except for that green paladin...I wonder where he's gotten to..."

"Oscar?" Boyd demanded, then bit his tongue.

"Ah, was that his name?" A cold laugh. "He neglected to mention it when he fell..."

"Enough talk!" Ike shouted. "You will pay now for all your crimes!"

"By all means... do your best."

_ The powdery remains of his torment were fast dissipating into the air. The Raven stepped to the balcony and took in what felt like his first deep breath in a long time._

_ Dead guards littered the courtyard—a reminder of the extent he'd gone to to ensure his people's freedom. "Sorry about this," he said quietly, "but there wasn't any other way I could distract him..."_

_ Of course, Ike couldn't hear his apology. Tibarn and Zelgius and the Apostle couldn't hear his apology._

_ The only way he saw to apologize—at least to the latter of those who deserved it—would be to give back those who had been taken..._

_ And with that thought in mind, he flew south._

Soren spat out a mouthful of blood, the tattered remains of an Elwind tome falling to the floor. "Ugh..."

"Soren, retreat!" Ike shouted, pulling him back.

Dark Link spun to block an overhead blow from Titania, then rolled under Boyd's axe blow. "If you surrender, perhaps I could spare most of you," he called.

Behind Soren, Mia coughed. "Keep going! Don't...don't...Ah...why can't I stop the bleeding...?"

Shinon shot again and got the Shadow in the side, but he ignored the wound and bore down on Titania. Deirdre and Rolf shot at him, but he was too fast.

Ike stormed forward and managed to get a kick in at Dark Link, distracting him from the red-haired paladin. "What is it you want, anyway?" he demanded.

The Shadow laughed and held up his right hand, showing the triangular mark on it. "Why, the Triforce, of course. Would you happen to know where Courage is? I can't seem to find it."

Ike glanced around at his troops. Mia and Soren were both badly wounded; Titania, Boyd, and Gatrie were also injured, and Rhys had been knocked out. They wouldn't last much longer; but he would rather not take them with him because of his stupid plan...

Then he had an idea.

He stepped sideways over to Titania. "Go," the mercenary said.

"But, Ike—" Titania said weakly.

"Go!" he shouted, more forcefully. "Run! Get out of here! That's an order!"

She didn't like it, but she picked up Rhys and made for the exit. The others shortly followed.

Dark Link glanced at them, then back at Ike. "What are you doing?"

"You want Courage, right?" he asked. "Well... You mean this?" He held up his right hand. There was a flash of green.

Dark Link's eyes widened. "Courage..." he whispered. His left hand flashed red for a moment, and Ike winced. "I should...I should've known."

Soren lingered at the door. "Go!" Ike shouted. "I'll find you later!"

The boy vanished. The Shadow suddenly laughed.

"'Find you later'? Is that what you think?" His blank red eyes suddenly narrowed dangerously. "You won't be going anywhere when I'm done with you."

Ike matched his gaze. "We'll see about that, won't we?"

With an angry yell, Dark Link swung his sword up and leapt forward. Ike parried it, inches from his face, then shoved the boy off hard enough to send him into a wall.

The Shadow was not deterred. He picked himself up and raced forward again, but this time, his blow was more controlled, and when Ike parried he followed up immediately with five more fast swings, and one last one that nearly took Ike's head off. He barely managed to block each one, and then went back at him with his own attacks—and was parried every time.

They paused, glaring at each other.

Then Ike attacked again, but he couldn't get a hit in.

_ The Raven landed in the mountain fortress, walking right past the familiar guards. They did nothing to stop him, not knowing that he was already free._

_ Sephiran glanced up as he approached. "King Kilvas. Why are—"_

_ The Raven went straight to the Heron; he snapped his fingers and said a few words, and the red lines crossing the black wings disappeared. Sephiran frowned. "What are you—"_

_ "It's broken." the Raven interceded. "My curse. It's broken. I'm getting you all out of here."_

Rolf screamed when he saw the green-clad body on the floor, two black arrows in his back. _"Oscar!"_

They both ran to him. Boyd was faster, but he only had to try and lift his brother's limp body to know that he was gone.

"N-n-no!" Rolf cried. "No! O-Oscar—y-you c-can't be d-dead—y-you—p-please—w-wake up..._wake up!_"

But there was nothing.

_ Lucia was awakened by the Raven opening her cell door. "Naesala? Why are you in such a rush?" she asked, standing up._

_ "Get out." he replied flatly._

_ She walked out of the cell, not understanding. "What's going on?"_

_ "I'm getting you out of here. I'm getting all of you out."_

Ike fell backwards from a kick to the face, wiping the blood from his face. Dark Link spun his sword again and leveled it at the blue-haired mercenary. "Surrender now, and perhaps I will not kill you."

"You will kill me anyway, just to take your damn Triforce." Ike spat.

"Not necessarily... but then again, you leave me no choice."

_At least the rest are safe,_ Ike thought, just before the Shadow rushed him again.

_ The princess's cell flew open as the Raven fell down to her side. "Leanne!"_

_ She moaned weakly, one eyelid barely fluttering open. "(N-Naesala...?)" she asked weakly._

_ "Leanne...You're going to be free soon." he said gently._

_ "(A-am I...w-waking up?)"_

_ He nodded. "Yes. Yes... I promise. You're almost free..."_

Dark Link did a sweeping kick at the same time as stabbing for Ike. He leaped back from both attacks and swung Ragnell down again. The edge slashed down Dark Link's left arm, causing him to yelp in pain, and they both fell back again for a moment.

Ike noticed that the wound wasn't closing itself, like the other ones were. He looked at Ragnell curiously and saw it stained with dark blood.

Dark Link noticed that he noticed, and growled. Then he jumped straight up, but when Ike looked, he wasn't there.

Then he felt a searing pain across his back.

_ Lucia sighed when she saw the sunlight. "Oh...it's been so long since I've seen that..."_

_ Bastian nodded agreement. "Aye... I thought I 'twas never to see the light again...Tis' a happy occasion that I was proven wrong!"  
"If you're done staring at the sky, try watching this one," Volke said, shoving Izuka's unconscious body forward, "while I get the other."_

_ "Ah, but of course!"_

_ Lucia waited till Volke had disappeared back into the dungeon before asking; "Who are these two prisoners of yours, anyway?"_

_ "All in good time, my dear."_

_ "Hurry up!" Naesala called from up ahead, Leanne limply in his arms, ignoring the pain in his arm. "We don't want to be late!"_

Something coiled around Ike's wrist, tearing Ragnell out of his grip. He spun to see Dark Link had discarded his sword, and now held something like a long black cord with the handle in his right hand.

It only took him a second to guess what it was;

A whip.

Dark Link lashing him across the face with it was enough to prove that theory correct.

_ "You have a lot of guts to ask me to meet with you, after what you've done." the Hawk said darkly. _

_ "Well, at least you aren't ripping them out quite yet," the Raven replied sarcastically._

_ The Hawk glanced over the Raven's shoulder to see the entourage he'd brought. "I see why you wanted me to bring some friends."_

_ "Yeah—would you mind helping me get them to the Apostle's army before Dark Link notices I'm gone?"_

_ "Why are you doing this? What about the blood pact?"_

_ "I broke it. It's gone."_

_ "...What!?"_

_ "Yeah. Turns out... the original signers being dead counted enough. I ripped it to pieces myself... See? The mark...it's all gone...I'm free..."_

_ "...You know that doesn't mean I'm not going to tear your lungs out..."_

_ "Not in front of Leanne, please..."_

"I should've known you'd cheat," Ike spat.

"Your lover tell you that much, did he?" Dark Link replied sarcastically, ignoring the blood pouring down his left arm.

"Bastard."

"I like to think I'm just...creative. Honor will only get you killed in battle, after all."

"...It was you in the armor, wasn't it?" the mercenary asked, a faint realization dawning.

"What do you mean?"

"The Black Knight. At the river? That was you."

Dark Link paused... then nodded. "Yes... and no. Yes, it was my conscious that controlled it; no, I was not actually inside the armor at the time. Such is the power of the armor itself; I'm sure your lover could tell you more about it."

"Well... thanks."

"'Thanks'?"

"Since you did that... and Zelgius was with me, or others, at the time... that means that nobody could suspect that he was the Black Knight before, I think... so... thanks."

"Hmm. How about you repay me by surrendering nicely?"

Ike struggled to his feet and drew a steel sword. "Not a chance."  
"I didn't think so." Dark Link drew his sword in his left hand, still holding the whip. "Let's see how much pain you can stand before you give in..."

Ike gritted his teeth and nodded. "At your ready."

_ The Apostle was startled, to say the least, when the armies of Phoenicis returned in force. "King Tibarn! But—I thought—"_

_ "What about the princess?" Zelgius asked for her._

_ "She's right here."_

_ "Ah! Naesala—" the Apostle started._

_ The Raven set down the Heron girl gently. "I have good news and bad news."_

_ "...Good news?" Sanaki asked hesitantly._

_ "I've broken my blood pact—I'm officially free. These are all the prisoners Dark Link had at the mountain stronghold..."_

_ "My empress?" a voice asked curiously._

_ The Apostle and Zelgius both started. "Sephiran!?" Sanaki demanded anxiously._

_ Naesala stepped aside just as the former Prime Minister stepped forward. "Sephiran!" the Apostle cried again, and raced into his arms. She didn't even notice the battered black wings coming out of his back._

_ "And...the bad news...?" Zelgius asked hesitantly, glancing back at Naesala._

_ "Well...er...it involves your husband..."_

Ragnell was gone. All his weapons were gone. He wondered how long he could go before the pain made him black out, but as it was, it didn't seem like much longer.

"If you had surrendered..." Dark Link coaxed.

"I would...rather...die...than surrender...to you." Ike said weakly.

Dark Link shrugged. "Your wish, then."

The whip lashed out against Ike's back again, and he choked down a scream. Then Dark Link struck again, this time moving to the front where it could go for his chest—where the skin was still weak and the memory of that injury was still painful—and Ike did cry out then, a weak mixture of agony and a sob that ended with another mouthful of blood being coughed on the floor.

Dark Link looked down at him sadly. His pain reminded him very much of someone else's, in a different place, at a different time—

He shook off his memories and struck again. Ike's scream was nothing like that other's...

_ Elena found her father sitting in his tent, with his face buried in his hands. "Father?" she asked hesitantly. "Are you all right?"_

_ Zelgius glanced up at her. "I... I'm..." He couldn't finish the sentence._

_ "...Is it about Dad?" she asked after a moment._

_ He nodded. "I...Yes...Ike...he might...he might not come back..."_

_ She walked over to him and climbed up in his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck comfortingly. He hugged her back and tried to be strong for her, but within a few minutes there were tears on both sides._

It seemed like an eternity before Ike passed out and Dark Link finally stopped. He picked Ike up and pushed him roughly into one of the cells, locked the door, and left. He gave the guards gathered outside their orders, and also ordered that no one would be allowed to see Ike but Dark Link himself.

Shard was waiting for him in the courtyard. It had started to snow, and the pure white flakes looked unnatural against the dragon's shining black scales. "(I... I have him, Shard.)" the Shadow told him with a faint smile. "(I have Courage at last. All I need is Wisdom now.)"

_ And then... it will finally be over..._

* * *

_**Author's Note:****  
**Hello and hope you enjoyed this chapter! (Toldya I'd update more regularly this time~ XD)  
Gawd, I felt so evil writing this...  
Anyway, again, hope you enjoyed it~ Reviews are always appreciated! I'll try to put up Chapter 16 soon!  
_

_~DarkieDucessa  
_


	17. XVI

**~Chapter Sixteen**

_December 7__th__, 648. Crimea._

The Greil Mercenaries were at a loss. Their commander gone, in the midst of hostile territory with no friends they could trust, the only thing they could think of was to go back home.

The Mercenary Fort was surprisingly unchanged, and they welcomed that—it was a small but reassuring bit of familiarity in their lives.

Soren and Mia were still badly injured, despite Rhys and Mist's efforts; Titania feared they wouldn't last much longer, especially with both the healers' staves exhausted and broken. The mercenaries sat inside, sad and aimless, while the snow fell slowly outside.

"What will we do now?" Mist finally asked.

"I don't know, Mist." Titania replied sadly. "With Ike gone, and Soren and Mia dying... it doesn't seem like there's anything we can do."

"We never should've left the Apostle's army..." Rhys said quietly. "This entire mission has gone downhill since we started, and we're no closer to finding the queen..."

Deirdre finally overcame her nerves and stood up. "I—I don't see what the choice is." she said firmly. "Yes... Commander Ike is gone. But he didn't give himself up to the Shadow so we could sit here, bemoaning his—and our—fate."

"But there isn't anything we can do." Mist said.

"Yes, there is." she said firmly. "We can do what we set out here to do. We can find the Queen, and the Royal Knights, and finish this job we started. And—and maybe with them at our backs, we can _rescue _the commander ourselves!"

"Deirdre..." Titania said quietly. "I'm glad someone around here is being positive, but... Remember, we have two wounded upstairs, who can't be moved—"

"No." Everyone glanced over at who had said it.

Soren was on the stairs, leaning heavily against the wall and holding his side where he'd been wounded. "We'll be fine. The Queen...is more important."

"Soren, you shouldn't be up!" Mist said worriedly, standing. "You should—"

"No!" He took in a deep breath. "If you find the Queen, and she can help you rescue Ike, then do it! He's more important than any of us! Any...of..." He slumped slightly, weakening.

Mist raced up the stairs and caught him before he fell. "Soren...you need to rest..."

Soren forced himself to stand on his own. "P-please," he begged Titania, "y-you have...to save him...promise...you won't...leave...him..."

She stood and nodded. "Soren...I promise, we'll do our best to get Ike back. But now...please...go back to bed. You won't do Ike any good if you're too weak to stand."

The sage nodded weakly and allowed Mist to help him up the stairs.

Deirdre sat down against the wall again. Shinon moved closer to her and put an arm around her shoulders. "That must've been hard." he said quietly. "Good job."

She smiled faintly. "Thank you..."

Naesala was in his tent, re-splinting his broken right arm—he hadn't bothered to do it properly before, when he was too concerned with the blood pact to care—when Lucia came in. "You seem to have a habit of pissing off the most important people." she said abruptly.

"I don't know what you're talking about, my dear Lucia." the Raven replied, wincing as he forced himself to straighten his arm again.

The woman rolled her eyes. "Really, Naesala. You've pissed off Tibarn, Reyson, Zelgius, and a lot others that I can't even begin to name."

"Well, that's hardly my fault." Naesala said sarcastically, starting to bandage his arm. "How is he, anyway?" he asked after a moment, his tone noticeably softer.

"Depressed. Always the good soldier, but... unfocused. Elena's the one you should be worried about; she's been crying for hours." Lucia sat down next to Naesala and gently took the bandage from him. "You're doing that wrong. Here."

The Raven glanced aside guiltily as she unwrapped and then started bandaging the arm again. "I really didn't have a choice," he muttered. "Nothing else could've gotten the Shadow's distraction like the possibility of the third mark."

"Lord Sephiran called it a Triforce." Lucia corrected him.

"Oh, yes. Well... I'd overheard Dark Link thinking out loud, and he thought that it was possible someone close to Ike had it—someone in the Greil Mercenaries. If he was still thinking that, well... it was the best distraction I had."

"And with that, you quite possibly killed both generals of the Apostle's army."

"Look, I said I was sorry, okay?" He winced as Lucia tied the bandage off particularly tight. "Ow!"

"It has to be tight, or it'll come off. I don't think saying you're sorry is going to make it up to Zelgius."

"I brought the rest of the prisoners back, right? I freed Leanne, and Lord Sephiran, and you and those others...What else can I do?"

"I think if you figured out a way to help Ike, that might make it up." She paused. "Why didn't you stick around with Dark Link after the pact was broken, anyway? You could've been a spy for us."

"What, and hope he didn't realize the pact was gone?" Naesala laughed. "At the least, he would've suspected something was different about me, and when he found out, he would've been on me like a hawk."

"You're probably right... But now this means that there's almost no way we can help the mercenaries or the Queen."

"I realize that...We'll just have to press on to Begnion, as they originally planned."

She nodded, then got up to leave. "Lucia," he suddenly said as she reached the front.

She paused. "Yes?"

"...Thank you."

Lucia turned to look back at him. "For what?"

He stood up and walked over to her. "For not holding your imprisonment against me. And... for... for being the only sane person I could talk to. Thanks."

She smiled faintly. "You're welcome."

Titania found Boyd outside in the snow. He'd been there for hours, on his knees, staring unflinchingly at the recent grave, and the headstone with his brother's name.

"Boyd..." she said quietly, kneeling down next to him. "It's getting late. You should come in, before you catch cold."

"It's my fault..." he mumbled. "It's my fault that he died... if... if I'd just waited for him..."

"Oscar's death was no one's fault but the archer that shot him." Titania said. "Even if you had waited, it might've been you that was shot, even..."

"But...I might have seen the archer...I could have killed him, and then Oscar would still be alive...!" Boyd buried his face in his hands. "If I hadn't—!"

She put an arm around his shoulders and pulled him close. "Boyd...it wasn't your fault." she said gently. "You... you can't blame yourself for something like this."

"Can't I...?" he asked quietly. "C-can't I!? It _is_ my fault, Titania! I—I could've saved him! I could've..." He choked. "But I c-couldn't s-save him...!"

She hugged him as he broke down into sobs.

The Raven king was a bit late for the meeting. "Sorry I'm late," Naesala apologized as he entered.

"Not that it matters," Tibarn grumbled. "We'll never get anything done with this sorry lot."

It was true, at least, that Zelgius didn't look like he was up to fighting anyone. He had shadows under his eyes and looked fairly miserable. Elena was with him—apparently the general hadn't wanted to leave her alone—and Tibarn's words were true; her eyes were red from crying and she still sniffled, looking even more miserable than her father. Sanaki, at least, was a bit more cheerful, but she was also a bit depressed, since Sephiran had returned to Begnion to help incur support against the Senate two days before. Ranulf, Skrimir, and Tanith were strangely absent; the only ones that looked remotely interested in actually planning anything were Kaj and Levail—neither of which looked all too cheerful themselves.

Naesala glanced over at Zelgius. "I apologize again, General."

The general barely nodded, saying nothing.

"Well," Tibarn said, after an awkward silence, "what's our next target? I know we have to take out Daein before we can advance."

"Yes," Sanaki agreed. "They are currently holed up in Castle Nox, I believe. But I am not sure as to what the best approach would be..."

"A head-on attack would serve our purposes." Zelgius said in almost a monotone. "I believe we have enough troops for it."

"Don't we have other matters to discuss?" Kaj asked quietly. "Such as the situation with Crimea and Hyrule?"

"There isn't really anything we can do for the Queen or the Greil Mercenaries," Levail informed him. "We'll just have to trust that they find some way to catch up with us before we march on Begnion."

"Concerning the attack on Castle Nox," the Apostle interceded, "who shall command the forward forces?"

"I will." Zelgius stated.

Tibarn glanced at him. "Are you sure you can handle that, though? You don't seem...well..."

"It is my duty, Hawk king." the general replied flatly. "I will not let my...my personal feelings get in the way of that."

"General..." Sanaki said softly. "Perhaps it would be best if you took some time off. I'm sure that King Phoenicis and General Levail can handle it by themselves."

"Apostle..."

"Consider that an order, General." she said sternly. "You won't do us any good out there with your mind on Ike."

"I...As you command, my lady."

"Kilvas has joined the Apostle's army?" Sothe swore and slammed his fist against the wall. "Damn! This just gets better and better!"

Micaiah gritted her teeth. "We barely stood a chance at all before; now with Kilvas on their side..."

"We're screwed." Sothe said darkly. "If we fight, we'll lose and we'll all die, and if we don't, the senate will activate the blood pact and we'll all die. Either way, we're all _dead_!"

"You shouldn't give up hope yet," Mars said quietly. "If Hyrule is really on our side, I don't believe we can lose."

"If Ike is on _their _side, then there's no way we can _win."_ Sothe snapped. "Why are you here, anyway? Shouldn't you be watching Pelleas?"

"He's resting. I thought it best not to disturb him."

"Micaiah?" The three of them glanced up as Edward ducked in the tent. "There's a couple people out here who want to see you. Says they're looking for someone, and thought maybe you could help..."

"Well, we'll see them now, I suppose." Micaiah said. Edward nodded and ducked out again; a moment later a tall green-haired man and a fairly shorter blue-haired woman entered.

Mars started when he saw the woman; a moment later she saw him and gasped in surprise. "Brother!"

"Elice Caeda!" he replied, and she dashed forward and hugged him, causing Sothe and Micaiah to jump.

"Well, that was easy." the man said cheerfully.

"I... assume that was who you were looking for." Micaiah said hesitantly.

He nodded. "Ayup. Stefan, by the way. That's Elice Caeda."

"Micaiah. This is Sothe."

"He knows." Sothe said. "We met in the Mad King's War. He's a bit crazy."

Stefan laughed. "That's how I might appear to someone who only spoke to me three times before."

The woman, Elice Caeda, stepped back from Mars and turned to Micaiah. "You must be Lady Micaiah." she said, bowing slightly. "And Sir Sothe. Pardon our intrusion."

"It's alright," Micaiah said. "I understand that you were worried for your brother."

"Er...Might we be excused for a moment to speak alone?" Mars asked.

The Maiden nodded. "Of course."

Mars, Stefan, and Elice Caeda left the tent; after a moment, Sothe slipped outside to listen on them. He caught the siblings partway through the conversation;

"'Mars'?" Elice Caeda was asking.

Mars shrugged. "Eh...I wasn't feeling very original."

"Hah!" She laughed. "It's fine."

"What are you doing here, anyway?"

"I... I felt you were hurt. What happened?"

He averted his gaze. "...It was nothing...just a scratch..."

She looked at him condescendingly. "I know that's not true."

"Look, it's not important!" he quickly insisted. "Are you sure this is safe—both of us, in the same place?"

"I don't think where we are makes much of a difference any more." she retorted. "The fact that Crimea is still standing means that Roy must have told the Shadow where you are."

Mars glanced down. "I—I know...I just...I can't believe he would have betrayed us..."

Then Sothe felt a hand on his shoulder and Stefan pulled him back. "Not nice to listen in on other people's conversations," he said sternly.

"What was it that she was saying?" Sothe demanded. "That Mars isn't his real name? Who is he really? Where'd they come from? Who _are _they?"

"My, full of questions, aren't we." The trueblade shoved him lightly back towards the tent. "Go back to your Maiden Micaiah, and stay out of it."

"Why should I?" Sothe snapped.

"If you pry, you'll only get yourself killed." Stefan replied calmly. "By Dark Link, or worse."

Dark Link was in a particularly vicious mood. He had claimed Courage, sure enough, but upon returning to the throne room he had discovered that _someone_ had ransacked his desk and taken the Kilvas blood pact—and then upon flying to his mountain fortress, had discovered that all his prisoners were mysteriously gone. On top of that, the Kilvas Ravens had been pulled out of his forces. He'd spent three days just trying to figure out what else might've gone wrong.

"This was probably all that damn Raven king's doing," he muttered angrily to himself, sorting through his desk and replacing all the papers and reports that Naesala had thrown about. "That informant they mentioned...the Raven probably paid her off to give them false information, just to distract me so he could claim his pact...And all the freed prisoners, oh, that was his doing as well, I'll bet..."

Shard sort of grunted and went back to cleaning himself, cat-like. Dark Link put the last report in its drawer and closed it, sighing. "Well, at least I have Courage, which should be enough recompense for the loss of Kilvas..."

_You're just trying to make yourself feel better,_ a nagging little voice in his head replied. _You know you got outsmarted..._

"Shut up." he snarled to himself. "I don't care what you think, but I have Courage and that's all that matters."

_Do you tell yourself that all the time?_ the voice asked. _No, wait, I forgot—you can't _not_ tell yourself without telling me. My bad. I suppose you just like saying it again for my benefit._

"Damn you." the Shadow muttered. "I wish I had gotten you out of my head years ago."

_I am as much a part of you as you are of me,_ the voice said with airs. _You can't get rid of me, or you'll lose all your sense of mind._

"Power can sustain my sense of mind all by itself." Dark Link retorted. "You are just an illusion."

_ Pfft._ The voice laughed._ You know very well that you cannot exist without me. That's why you trapped me within your body, so you could keep control of me... but your delusions of power won't last much longer._

"If you are placing that in the belief that Wisdom can somehow elude me, you are entirely wrong." Dark Link snapped. "I already know he's in Daein; all I have to do is wait for the Apostle to destroy their country, and then sort through the remains."

_I was thinking more on Courage,_ the voice replied. _You have taken him into your own fortress, despite knowing very well that you cannot take the Triforce from him—_

"Shut up! I _will_ find a way!" the Shadow cried angrily, drawing a confused glance from Shard. "Your old force will not stop me from obtaining the whole!"

_That's what Lord Ganondorf thought... before you killed him and ripped Power from his dying body._

"I don't need to listen to this..!"

_Have you let yourself forget so easily? You are a murderer, Dark Link. You murdered Ganondorf and stole his Triforce; you murdered thousands on the continent of Akaneia; you watched as your Dark Lord stole the life from me and Princess Zel—_

"Do _not_ speak of her to me." Dark Link snarled. "She's—she is gone."

_Do not feign indifference,_ the voice stated. _You loved her, didn't you?_

"That—that is not—"

_Which is why you are still haunted by her, after all these years. Isn't she why you pursue Wisdom so relentlessly? To recover what was hers, and lost long ago, so you could—_

"I will speak to you no more." Dark Link said decisively. "This conversation is over."

The voice fell silent, but the Shadow knew very well the truth of his words. He did not know how to claim Courage from its host; he didn't even know how he'd managed to claim Power from the Dark Lord, fifteen years ago, for his memories of that time were scattered and confused.

But he would never cease to try.

_ "Your Majesty."_

_ "Marcia! You're back! Quick, what's the news?"_

_ "It's...not good, your Majesty."_

_ "...What happened?"_

_ "...Ike's been captured."_

_ "What!?"_

_ "Calill told me everything. She was payed by the Raven king to give him false information about your whereabouts, and he and the Greil Mercenaries were led into a trap. Most of them escaped, but Ike was captured."_

_ "...No! Calill...How could she?!"_

_ "She said she was led to believe that Dark Link wasn't around and that the Raven king only needed a small distraction...that no harm would come of it..."_

_ "...So the great General Ike has been captured by Dark Link. So what? He isn't that important."_

_ "Roy, you don't understand..! Ike...He has the third mark!"_

_ "William?"_

_ "Ah..! M-my lord sage! You've escaped!"_

_ "With no small help from King Kilvas, but yes. How goes the rebellion?"_

_ "Very well, my lord. I don't know how we managed with nobody actually seeing you, but now that you're here, everything will work out perfectly."_

_ "Excellent. How do the other Alteans fare?"_

_ "Dustin and Kester are well, my lord. I've also received word on the others."_

_ "And?"_

_ "Elwyn and Luna have joined the Apostle's army. Tiki, Mark, and Lucina are still safely in Goldoa. Prince Roy is in hiding with Queen Crimea. Princess Elice Caeda was traveling to Daein. Deirdre is with the Greil Mercenaries. Jak's kept his own whereabouts a secret."_

_ "And the crown prince?"_

_ "Still no word, my lord. I fear for the worst."_

_ December 8th, 648._

The battle had raged on for hours, and the stones of Castle Nox were awash with the blood and bodies of both beorc and laguz.

Daein was losing horribly, and they knew it. Their forces had been halved, and many of their commanders killed, but they still fought on, desperately trying to last out the Apostle's army.

Micaiah stood up on the wall, casting Shine down on the Apostle's forces that tried to climb it. She barely dodged a Begnion archer's return shot and wiped the sweat from her brow.

"Micaiah!" Sothe ran up to the foot of the wall, finishing off the archer, and shouted up to her. "We have to retreat! We can't hold out much longer!"

"I—We can't fall back yet!" she shouted back. "We have to fight to the end...!"

Sothe scrambled up the wall beside her. "Micaiah, this is insane! If we stay here any longer, we're all going to die, and then the damn blood pact won't matter anyway!"

"I—I—We have to—keep—"

She was interrupted by the cry of a Hawk; a moment later a wounded one was diving down at her. Sothe barely shoved her out of the way in time, and was gashed on the arm. The skin ripped; blood sprayed as he cried out in pain. Micaiah cast Shine on the Hawk, finishing it off, then fell to Sothe's side.

"We can fight!" she insisted. "If we can hold out just a little longer—"

"Micaiah, it's over!" he shouted angrily. "Can't you understand that!? Edward, Nolan, Tauroneo, Aran, Laura—they're all dead! All dead because of this stupid battle and this stupid war! Now order the men to retreat, before the rest of us get killed too!"

"But—"

She never got to finish the sentence. Someone shouted behind Sothe and he spun to see a familiar dagger-wielding dark-haired Begnion cut down a pair of Daein soldiers. Kaj glanced at Sothe for just a second, and then his eyes widened.

Then Micaiah gasped, and when Sothe turned back, the tip of a spear protruded from her stomach. Sothe gasped, and she looked up at him with wide eyes.

"O-order the men...to...r-retreat..." she said weakly—and then she collapsed facedown.

"_No!_" Sothe screamed. _"NOO! MICAIAH!"_

* * *

_Gawd, I felt so evil writing this chapter...I killed off almost the entire Dawn Brigade in one sentence...*facedesk*  
I have a cold...I hate being sick. Maybe the next chapter will be more uplifting.  
_


	18. XVII

**Author's Note:  
**

_I suck. Yes. That is the only thing I can say for myself after promising to update more frequently and then...well, not. I have a hoard of excuses, but I'm not going to say them, because that would be like trying to get out of the responsibility I have of uploading chapters as I write them..._  
_Well, anyway. Here is Chapter Seventeen. Reviews are always appreciated, while I'm on that topic, THANK YOU manmannikuman for reviewing, I'm very glad you like it! :3_  
_So, as always, reviews are appreciated, hope you enjoy!_

_~DarkieDucessa_

**~Chapter Seventeen**

_December 11__th__, 648. Castle Crimea._

Dark Link sighed quietly, spinning his sword easily in one hand. "Really, boy, at the rate you attempt this, it's almost as if you _want _to die."

Ike leaned against the corridor wall, breathing heavily. He was bloodied and battered, holding a Hylian spear. A trail of dead or wounded guards led behind him, back towards the dungeon.

"You almost got to the courtyard this time," the Shadow said almost cheerfully. "That makes this your...how many was it?...Fourth escape attempt?"

"Fifth," Ike corrected.

"Ah, yes. Very well." Dark Link stepped forward, leveling his sword and eying the spear. "I see you are taking full advantage of your Triforce, as well."

"What, this?" Ike lifted the spear slightly. "I figured I was just...getting lucky."

"Do you wish to test your luck further, or will you return to your cell quietly? I promise you, the pain will be even worse if you resist."

"I think I'm—" Ike was cut off by his own coughing, splattering blood on the floor. "Maybe I'd...better go back...for now..."

"Good choice." Dark Link took the spear from him, tossing it aside.

Ike walked slowly, using the wall heavily as a support. "How long must this go on?" he asked wearily. "When will you kill me...and get it over with?"

"Soon enough, soon enough."

"Do you think that the Prince is...going to come try and rescue me...or something?"

"No...though if he did, that certainly would be fortunate. I simply have had more pressing matters to attend to than your imminent death. Be patient."  
"I don't exactly have a choice. Unless I—" he coughed— "escape."

Dark Link laughed. "I assure you, that won't happen. Soon I'll move you to my fortress in the mountains, and then any rescue attempt will be almost impossible, I believe."

"...Damn...that's hardly comforting."

"I didn't intend it to be." They arrived back in the dungeon and Dark Link roughly shoved Ike back in his cell, locking the door. "Now stay in there this time."  
"You can't...trap me forever!" Ike called as the Shadow departed. "I'll get out eventually!"

"My dear boy, I would be disappointed if you didn't try." Dark Link replied smoothly.

_Mercenary Fort_

"How are you feeling?" Mist asked quietly.

Mia moaned slightly, rubbing her head. "I've got a headache the size of Sienne...and a stomachache to match. ...How's Soren?"

"Still asleep." the younger girl replied, glancing over at the fitfully sleeping sage. "I think...well...he's gotten some sort of illness that I don't recognize. He hasn't woken up in four days..."

"Damn...what about...rescuing the boss?"

"...Nothing...no one's quite sure what to do. We have you two to take care of, and Boyd can hardly tear himself away from Oscar's grave...and besides, there are Hylian patrols everywhere; no one wants to go out and accidentally lead them back to here."

"...But...we have to...rescue Ike..." Mia said wearily. "Otherwise...won't Dark Link...kill him?"

Mist sighed deeply, staring at her feet. "I...probably...yes. And there's nothing we can do..."

_The Apostle's Army, occupying Castle Nox_

Kaj entered Levail's room and bluntly asked; "Are you alright?"

The young Begnion general was sitting on his bed, bandaging his arm. He glanced up when the rogue entered and nodded slightly. "Yes... That green-haired rogue was a piece of work, but I think my arm will be fine. What about you?"

Kaj shrugged, sitting down next to his commander. "I didn't get hit much. The hits I did take, I took care of on the field."

"Oh." Levail quietly went on with bandaging his arm. There was an awkward silence.

"What happens now?" Kaj finally asked. "Daein's been crushed. Shouldn't we be advancing on Begnion?"

Levail took a moment to gather his thoughts. "Well... we do have to move on the senate, yes. I believe that the Apostle wants to give the army a chance to rest before moving on."

"The last battle was a blowout." the rogue stated. "We hardly lost any troops. Few wounded. I think she's waiting for something."

"What for?"

"...I don't know. It's... just a feeling."

"Well, she won't wait for much longer." Levail stood up, stretching his injured arm and wincing. "General Zelgius tells me we'll be moving out within half a fortnight."

"That soon?" Kaj stood up as well, placing a hand on Levail's arm. "Are you sure you'll be alright?"

"I think I can manage." the young sentinel said, smiling down at the short rogue faintly. "Thanks for asking."

_Somewhere in the wilderness outside Castle Nox_

Sothe was crying. Volug was slightly surprised; the young rogue never cried. But, truth be told, Volug was crying too, which he never did either, and both's tears were spilled over the same thing;

Micaiah. She was dead; they'd buried her under the tree they now knelt beside. Yune stood on the flat stone they'd used as a headstone; the bird was silent, as if in respect for the Maiden.

"I'm so sorry..." Sothe whimpered, his face buried in his dirty and bloody hands. "I...I couldn't protect you..."

"(I have failed my queen.)" Volug said quietly. "(I have failed...and you are lost to us. How...how can I ever face her again...?)"

Neither of them cared about the Daein army any more, or Pelleas or the blood pact or any of it. Both had only been there for one thing, and she was now gone forever.

Sothe suddenly sat up, lowering his hands. "I can't leave it like this..." he mumbled. Volug glanced at him questioningly.

The rogue's hands suddenly tightened into fists and his expression narrowed into a glare. "I will avenge her death." he said darkly. "I will find that Begnion and kill him for what he's done!"

"(...And...I will go with you, my friend.)" Volug said quietly. "(And then...perhaps my soul will be at rest.)"

The two of them exchanged glances and came to a silent agreement. Then they both stood and walked away, leaving Yune alone with the grave of the Maiden of Dawn.

_A small camp near Talrega_

It was snowing. Soft flakes fell softly to the ground, blanketing the small and battered camp in white.

The remnants of the Daein army had fled, battered and broken, into the countryside; none had much reason to fight after their beloved Maiden of Dawn was dead. Sothe and Volug were gone, having disappeared with her body. Pelleas felt more alone than ever.

The young king shivered, moving closer to the fire. Mars glanced up and met his eyes. "You should get some rest, your Majesty." he said softly.

Pelleas shook his head. "No, we... we have to leave soon, get back to Nevassa..."

"Your Majesty, we cannot get any further today, in this condition." Elice Caeda said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You must rest."

"Why bother?" he moaned. "It's over...everything's over...Micaiah is dead, the army is broken, the Apostle marches on Begnion and the senate will activate the blood pact any day now..."

"Your Majesty..." Mars said quietly.

"This is your fault, you know." Pelleas said darkly. "Yours and Micaiah's. If you had let me die, none of us would be in this mess!"

"How can you say that?" Mars demanded. "Your dying would have done nothing but make Daein's plight worse!"

"It would have freed us from the pact!" Pelleas snapped. "We would've been free, Micaiah and everyone wouldn't be dead... But instead, you had to try and be a damn martyr!"

"Listen to yourself." Mars said, getting angry. "You wanted to die, but you accuse me of being the martyr...What if you had died? What would we have told the Daein army, the citizens? That the king died to save his country. _You_ would have become the martyr, Pelleas!"

"But nobody would've died!" Pelleas cried. "They would all still be alive, and I would be dead! Yes! I should be dead! I should've died a long time ago and never troubled anyone with my existence!" He slammed his forehead against the dark tome he carried and started laughing. "I should be _dead!_"

Elice Caeda took Pelleas' hand and pulled him to his feet. "Your Majesty, you aren't feeling well. You need your sleep."

Pelleas didn't stop laughing. "And then you wouldn't be caught in this! You and your sister would be free, free of me, the pathetic king who can't do anything! Who ruins everything! Yes! I should've died years ago, yes!"

Elice Caeda forcefully dragged him to his tent, his pathetic laughter turning into sobs. Stefan picked up a twig and tossed it in the fire. "A bit touched in the head, is he?" he commented.

Mars sighed. "He wasn't like this when I first met him... he was a good man before; he honestly wanted to fix his mistakes, to become a good king...But now, this war and this blood pact have destroyed him."

"Personally, I'd like to get a shot at whoever invented blood pacts." Stefan said darkly. "They do nothing but cause pain, misery, death... no good has ever come of them, and none ever will."

Mars nodded. They sat quietly, watching the fire, hearing Pelleas' pathetic whimpers and Elice Caeda's soothing murmurs. Eventually, the sounds from the young king's tent faded into silence.

And the snow slowly fell.

_Just outside Castle Nox_

Zelgius sat against a tree, staring off into the middle distance. His thoughts drifted, spinning between Ike and Hyrule and the Apostle's Army and Daein and eventually back to Ike again.

_I never should have let you go to Crimea,_ he thought regretfully. _I should have gone with you, at the least... then I could have protected you, made sure you were safe..._

That was how he was when Elena found him. She knelt down next to him, so quietly that he almost didn't notice her. "Are you alright, Father?" she asked softly.

He nodded. "I'm fine, child..."

She frowned slightly. "You don't call me 'child' unless you're upset. What's wrong?"

"What do you think?" he snapped, then paused. "...I'm sorry, I'm just..."

"...It's about Dad." she said quietly. "You're worried for him."

"...Yes."

She paused for a long moment, letting him dwell in his thoughts. "So you think that the Shadow has him in Melior, right?"

Zelgius nodded. "What of it?"

"Well, if you know where he is...why don't you go rescue him?"

Her father was silent for a very long moment. "Elena...I don't know if Ike ever mentioned it, but I've fought the Shadow before...and I lost. Besides, he's a long way away; there's no way I could get there fast enough to help him before he was..."

She sighed, leaning against his shoulder. "I wish this war had never come," she murmured. "I wish the Alteans had gone to some other continent. I wish Dad had never gotten that Triforce. ...I wish that Hyrule had never existed."

Zelgius put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer. "Don't we all, Elena." he murmured. "Don't we all..."

_Castle Crimea_

It was late evening before Dark Link returned to Ike's cell. The mercenary was sleeping fitfully, but he awoke when the Shadow stepped inside. "Here to finally finish the job?" Ike asked, before falling into a coughing fit. Blood covered his hands.

Dark Link reached in his pouch and pulled out a long, thin silver knife, holding it up in his left hand. "Not quite, boy. I merely aim to cease your escape attempts tonight."

Ike moaned slightly, pulling farther back against the wall. "Couldn't you please just kill me?" he asked. "It'd be better than having to put up with this."

"You'll be alive for a bit longer, I'm afraid. For now..." Dark Link stepped forward and knelt over Ike, holding up the knife menacingly, "...you'll simply be in a lot of pain. I hope you don't scream; my... _loud_ victims are the most annoying."

Ike gritted his teeth and covered his head with his arms. "Do your worst."  
"I intend to."

_Melior_

The woman with short green hair sighed in relief as she came to the end of the sewer tunnel, lightly touching the steel grating that blocked it from the river. "Everything's clear," she whispered.

The red-haired boy behind her also sighed. "Good. Hopefully it won't take too long to get out." he replied, equally quietly.

They had just turned to start back up the tunnel when they heard a faint scream. Both froze, stunned silent by the agonized sound.

Then it came again, haunting and faint, seeming to echo back to them from the city. "Oh my Goddess." the woman said in horror. "C-Commander Ike..."

"Pray that he dies soon," the boy said ominously, "and doesn't have to live with pain like that."

The young green-haired woman started when she first heard the screams, rushing to the window and looking up at the castle nearby. "My Goddess, is that Ike?" she asked, horrified. "W-what are they doing to him?"

"My lady, you must stay away from the window," the blue-haired man said quietly from behind her, stepping forward to close the curtains. "You never know who might be looking. Please, come back down."

"No! I—I can't go back down there, Geoffrey... everything is so dark and stuffy and...claustrophobic..."

"We have to stay hidden until Sharon and Roy return, my lady." Geoffrey said flatly. "If we were discovered now, it would be the end for us."

"Geoffrey..." The woman sighed, sitting down against the wall. "What has everything come to? A queen, hiding in her own kingdom... the Apostle chased out of her empire... And heroes getting tortured by shadows just because of a mark on their hand?"

"Elincia..."

"I—I just can't take it anymore, Geoffrey!" She buried her face in her hands, sobbing. "E-everything's fallen to p-pieces..."

He knelt down beside her, putting an arm around her shoulders. "Shh..." he murmured. "It's alright...I promise, everything will be alright again...someday..."

She turned and hugged him, burying her face in his chest. He pulled her close and comforted her the best he could.

_Castle Nox_

Ranulf was waiting for Zelgius when he finally returned to the castle, alone. "What were you doing?" the Cat asked.

"I simply wanted to be alone for a while." the general replied.

"I thought you'd run off to rescue Ike."

"Everyone seems to think I should today." Zelgius sighed, walking past Ranulf. "I don't see why. Even if I did go to find him, I would probably be too late to save him."

"You could get there in less than an hour." Ranulf said.

Zelgius kept walking. "I don't see how."

"You know exactly how." the Cat called after him. "Black Knight."

The general froze in his tracks. "...What do you mean?"

"It's true, isn't it?" Ranulf stepped forward. "You're the Black Knight. You killed Greil and married his son, isn't that right?"

Zelgius turned on him, his eyes narrowing. "I don't see what right you have to accuse me of—"

"It's _true!"_ Ranulf snapped. "I recognized your scent, your fighting style—everything fits!"

"In case you forgot," Zelgius said darkly, "the Black Knight was at Ribahn River, while I was with Ike at Seliora."

"So Dark Link got ahold of the armor. I wouldn't put it past you to abandon it after marrying Ike to ensure your position." Ranulf took another step. "You really are a scheming bastard, aren't you? Plotting your way into the Greil Mercenaries—Hah! I bet you aren't really gay. I bet you just seduced Ike so you could—"

Suddenly Ranulf was nearly falling over as Zelgius stood in front of him, gripping his shirt by the collar, their faces right up next to each other. "Do _not,_" Zelgius snarled, "_ever,_ accuse me of being false to my husband again. He means more to me than you could ever understand."

They glared at each other for a long, tense moment. "If that's true...then go rescue him." Ranulf finally said. For just a moment, a faint smile cracked his face. "I was getting a bit worried for a second."

"What...?"

The Cat stepped back from the furious general, squarely meeting his gaze. "If Ike dies because you were too much of a coward to admit what you were before, I'll never forgive you." He paused. "And...more importantly...you'll never forgive yourself." Then he turned and ran off, disappearing into the long evening shadows.

Zelgius stood there for a long moment, allowing his breathing to slow. Somehow, he knew that Ranulf was right.

_What have I been doing?_ he demanded of himself. _Sitting here, wallowing in self-pity... like a fool, a coward. Is that all I am? A coward? Surely...I must have more meaning than that._

_But what am I, if I am too scared to face the others and admit what I was before, to save the man I love?_


	19. XVIII

**~Chapter Eighteen**

_December 12__th__, 648.  
_ It was dark, the overcast sky and the early pre-dawn hours combined to shut out all light over the country. For indeed, a cloud was covering all Crimea, and with the hours barely having marked the new day, no one stirred.  
Almost fittingly, Soren chose this time to finally awaken.  
At first, he couldn't tell that his eyes were open, so dark was it. He sat up, then caught his breath as pain shot up in his side. He could hear Mia quietly snuffling in her sleep, but other than that, it was silent. He wondered what time it was—probably around the second or third hour.  
He slid out of bed, standing unsteadily on his weak legs, then stumbled forward a bit. His outstretched hand hit the door, and he used it to steady himself before opening it. He knew the room well enough to make it to the small table, and the candle that was on it. More fumbling in the dark, a few whispered words, and the candle was lit. He blinked as his eyes readjusted to the light.  
His head was fuzzy, and he had a strange curiosity for whether anyone else was awake, so he picked up the candle and made his way to the door again. He could hear Gatrie snoring now, from his room at the end; the mage walked right past it and to the stairs. He hardly felt as if he were walking—almost as if his feet were gliding on the floor. He shook his head, and it momentarily cleared.  
Down in the main room, everything seemed silent again. Scattered maps and papers littered the central table, a few glued to the wood by the melted candle in the center. Titania was slumped over the table, sleeping fitfully; as Soren got closer, he heard her mumble in her sleep, something about Ike and which way to go next.  
Soren had no idea why he was even awake at this hour, or why he'd decided to come downstairs; he was just about to go back up when he felt the sudden presence of a familiar magic. He froze, waiting to see if he felt it again; a moment later, he did, distinctly outside. He wondered if he should investigate; then he heard heavy footsteps, and reacted instinctively. Blowing out the candle, he ducked under the table, suddenly plunged into darkness.  
Then he felt a draft as the door quietly opened. He couldn't make out much in the dark, except that whoever it was that entered was wearing armor.  
A moment later, when the stranger lit a torch, he saw the armor's color and his blood ran cold._ Oh Goddess. Why...  
_He remained frozen as the knight walked over to the table; he heard shuffling and assumed he was looking through the papers. He heard a few soft words. And at that moment, something seemed to snap inside Soren—  
But not in a bad way. Not violent. He suddenly knew what the knight was here for, and he knew it wasn't to hurt anyone. And he knew...this time, it was the real knight. He'd heard Ike talking to Zelgius, telling him that it wasn't the knight he'd fought before; the one at the river was fake, not the same—an impostor in the same armor.  
This was the real knight. The real knight was here, returned after so long. And maybe...just maybe, he could...  
Soren backed out from under the table and stood up, facing the knight. His head felt thicker and foggier than ever, and he knew he probably wouldn't stay up much longer... "Melior. He's...the castle...please..."  
For a moment, everything went black—  
—and then Soren woke up, back in his bed, in the room he traditionally shared with Elena and currently shared with Mia. Nothing seemed different from when he'd woken up before—but a quick glance up and he realized the window was open, and the dawn light was just beginning to filter in. At least four hours must've passed.  
_Was it a dream?_ he wondered. He hoped it hadn't been.  
Then he felt the presence of a very familiar magic again, and shot out of bed. He tripped over a loose floorboard and crashed against the wall, waking Mia.  
"What the—" She shot up, then saw Soren. "Soren, you're awake!"  
The sage got to his feet again, ignoring the pain in his foot, and looked out the window. And, just visible through the morning mist, lighted almost as if by a ray from heaven, he saw what he'd been praying for.  
"Ike!" he shouted. "Z-Zelgius! Oh, God..."  
And with that last bit of his strength expended, he passed out once again.

_I said goodbye to Elena last night. I told her to stay with the Apostle, stay safe, protected...  
She thought I was going to get myself killed. She begged me not to leave her...she'd already lost Ike and Soren, she said, and she couldn't lose me too...  
__I promised her I'd be alright. What else could I do, when I had no idea what was coming?  
_

_Lord Sephiran seems to know things about certain people before they know it themselves. He gave me the warp powder before he returned to Begnion, as if he knew what I would do with it.  
__Not much. Just enough for me to warp four times.  
__As if he already knew... how many times I would need it that night.  
_

_The first thing I had to do was recover my old armor. I guessed that Dark Link would still have it, and that he wouldn't have bothered moving it to Crimea after its purpose was complete. That left his mountain fortress—and with luck, Dark Link would still be in Melior, which would mean all I would have to deal with was any guards he might've left behind.  
__It had been awhile since I'd used warp powder, but I still remembered how it worked—and also its effects. It took me a moment to regain my balance after I reappeared on the south wall of the fortress, and another few minutes before I could continue. Fortunately, it appeared that Dark Link was a bit less cautious after the capture of Crimea—there were no guards on the walls._  
_However, I realized my disadvantage as I descended into the courtyard; I had fairly bad vision in the dark, as was normal for beorc, but as I heard an almost reptilian shout, I recalled that Dark Link's soldiers were inhuman—and probably had better night vision, as well. The lack of torches in the courtyard said as much—and the lack of moonlight would make this fight even worse.  
__Not for the first time, I thanked Ashera for General Greil and his training—in this case, for those lessons on fighting blind.  
__I heard a reptilian growl on my left and swung around, letting the weight of my blade carry it through, and felt a satisfactory smack. There was a yelp, and I could just make out one of Dark Link's lizard creatures falling back. Another growl came from behind me and I swung again; again, I felt my blade connect and heard the creature retreat._ _They weren't entirely stupid, though, and after those first two the rest of them were keeping their distance.  
I judged where the door to the keep was and strode forward._ _Something whistled by my head and I turned. Summoning the familiar and powerful magic in my sword to life, I fired a beam of light into the darkness and heard something cry out in pain.  
__Then something jumped onto my right shoulder, narrow claws digging into my flesh. I reached up and grabbed it, ripping the thing off, wincing as the claws tore free, leaving a few thin, bloodied gashes. The thing looked like a sort of grayish-pink scorpion; I tossed it aside, hitting it once with my sword as it was in the air to finish it. Another arrow whistled by me, and I turned briefly to kill the archer behind me.  
__My eyes were already rapidly adjusting to the dark, and I saw there was another lizard creature blocking the door. As I approached, it sucked in a large breath, then breathed out a stream of fire in a half-circle before it. Fortunately, the range wasn't very great, and I stood just on the edge of the stream, spun my blade twice above me, and killed it with the sword's magic. It screeched and collapsed; I kicked its body aside before wrenching the heavy door open.  
__The torches around the throne room flickered to life as I entered; by some magical design, I supposed. The door behind me swung shut of its own accord, and a metal grating slammed down over it. I looked around, but the room was empty, save for the golden throne in the center. I saw two doors leading out, but both of them were barred as well.  
__Then I heard the screeching of metal; a moment later, seemingly out of nowhere, a huge knight in black armor fell and landed on its feet before the throne. It swung its huge blade out wide single-handedly, then pointed it at me, as if in challenge._ _I drew power into Alondite and fired a beam at it; it blocked it with its shield, then walked slowly forward. I was puzzled why it didn't simply charge—its brute strength was likely enough to match me by force—but stepped forward to meet it.  
Our blades clashed; its blows were strong, but I quickly realized that that was all it had, and I countered each of its attacks fairly easily._ _Eventually, as I blocked an overhead swing, I took the opportunity to step forward and slam my shoulder into its chest. As it stumbled, I saw an open point on its back, and stabbed. It screeched in agony, collapsing to the ground as I withdrew my sword.  
__A foolish armor design, I thought as it died, that would leave such an opening.  
__Then, to my surprise, the body of the knight exploded, black dust flying out and dissipating into the air. The metal gratings over the doors slid up again. Shaking my head at the curiousness of this place, I chose one of the other doors and proceeded._

_By luck, I found myself in the armory soon after. Stacked on a table was a familiar set of armor. I picked up the helmet, feeling an overwhelming sensation of deja vu.  
__I would put this armor on again. I would set out to complete my task—again.  
__Hopefully, I wouldn't—again—leave Ike with someone he loved... dead in his arms.  
_

_I still had three uses of the warp powder left. I didn't know where Ike was; I just had a feeling that he had been captured by Dark Link, a feeling that had been shared by everyone I knew in the Apostle's army._ _He might have been in Castle Crimea. He might have been in Daein. I could only think of one place where I would find out—one place where any of the mercenaries not captured, lost and without their commander would have gone.  
__I warped to the Mercenary Fort. Two uses left.  
__I spent little time there; thank the goddess for Soren, trusting me enough to say. I'm surprised he did at all, since I wore this armor; perhaps he thought whatever I might have in store for Ike was better than what Dark Link might. I'll probably never know.  
I carried the boy back up to his bed, then left my home to its peace.  
_

_I ended up in the courtyard of the castle, with one use remaining. Here, Dark Link had not been so careless as to leave it undefended, and I was immediately confronted by a mob of bulblins.  
__I'd forgotten...how the armor was. The sense of power I felt when wearing it...and the power it gave me. I swept aside four bulblins in one swing and the rest in my second. Several bulblin archers rained arrows on me, and all simply bounced off to land harmlessly on the ground. A pair of lizard creatures guarded the door; I killed them before they had a chance to swing.  
__I felt...empowered. Undefeated. Invincible.  
__The doors crashed down after one mighty kick. Waves of strange and monstrous creatures bore down on me; all fell to my blade. I left bodies and a trail of blood in my wake, but I cared little; a sort of frenzy seemed to be taking hold of me, and I saw nothing but the next opponent in my path.  
__I know not how much time passed before I entered the dungeon, sending the door flying into the opposite wall with a single strike. A pair of the same knights I had fought in the mountain fortress waited for me; they fell in mere seconds to my blade.  
__A red glow drew me to one of the cells. I looked in, and for a moment was blinded by the glow, before my eyes adjusted.  
__There was a crystal inside the cell, floating just off the ground. It was blood-red and glowed the same color; occasionally a bright green wave seemed to pass over the crystal, before being overcome by the red.  
__Ike was inside the crystal, slumped and seemingly hanging from nothingness. Through the red of the crystal I could see the darker red of his blood and the horrible extent of his wounds.  
__Rage filled me, almost visible as a blue aura around my chest and blade, and I swung upwards, cleaving several of the bars diagonally. A second upward swing from the other direction and several parts of iron fell to the ground, clattering loudly. I swung twice down and sent the bars flying against the walls.  
__I swung down once more and the crystal shattered.  
__Ike fell to the floor in a stream of bloodied green light. Shards of red magic dissipated around me as I fell to his side, pulling his cape aside to see the scars of the lash through his torn and bloody shirt. His face and arms were covered in lashes and cuts, and there was a still bleeding gash at the base of his throat.  
__He opened his eyes and they were pale and fading. "W-w-who," he managed to say, before dissolving into a fit of bloodied coughing.  
__I was now glad for remembering to bring that vulnerary—I only wished I'd thought to bring an elixir as well; Ike needed both, badly. I poured the contents of the small brown bottle down his throat, making sure he swallowed it rather than coughing it back up.  
I waited a few tense moments; then the bleeding began to slow, and his coughing stopped._ _"Zelgius," he rasped weakly, "I...thought we'd agreed...you wouldn't wear that...armor...anymore."  
__I smiled faintly, even though he couldn't see it. "Just for a bit longer, love." I said softly. "I promise, just a bit longer..."  
__I reached for my warp powder, but when I willed its use, nothing happened. Frowning, I tried again; same thing. Dark Link must have put a ward against magic inside the building, I decided; I would have to return to the courtyard.  
__Ike was in no condition to walk, so I picked him up gently, balancing him against my side with my left hand and holding Alondite in my right. Ike made no protest, though moaned slightly as I started walking. I held him as carefully as I could, and exited the dungeon.  
__We were confronted by more lizard creatures and bulblins in the hall, as well as Hylian guards; I had to dispatch them more carefully with Ike at my side, but I managed to get through them without allowing him injury.  
__Then, in the final hallway to the courtyard, I was confronted by my worst nightmare—a shadow, descended from seemingly nowhere, glistening blade in hand._ _"Do you dare think that you will take Courage from me now?" Dark Link said, his voice a dangerous hiss.  
__"Stand aside." I said flatly.  
__The Shadow paused, as if actually considering it. "No." he finally replied.  
__I had anticipated the answer. Even so, I tried again; "Stand aside, or—"  
__"Or what?" Dark Link interrupted. "You can do nothing to me. I defeated General Zelgius; why shouldn't I be able to defeat the Black Knight?"  
__I said nothing, but started forward. The red slits of the Shadow's eyes narrowed even further, and then he shot forward, striking at my sword arm._ _I swung Alondite wide and struck him as he moved. He staggered back, briefly stunned, then leapt at me again.  
Our blades clashed several times; he finally broke off with an unexpected leap sideways, then rolled in to go for Ike. I parried him and shoved him backwards, hard; he regained his footing after a moment and faced me again.  
__I had advanced barely five feet, with another thirty still ahead. With my left arm occupied with holding Ike, I was at a severe disadvantage—and if the battle drew out as it was bound to, who knew what Dark Link might pull out of his sleeve?  
__Ike sensed this. "I can walk," he whispered weakly. "Put me down. I'll get by."  
__"No," I said, keeping an eye on Dark Link as I started forward again. "That's just what he wants, so he can surprise us with something and capture you again."  
__Then Dark Link attacked again, this time from behind, such that I barely managed to parry him before he flipped back. He disappeared into the darkness behind me and reappeared before me as I turned again. "Give back my Courage, knight." he said darkly.  
__"He was never yours!" I retorted as I dragged power into Alondite and struck with a bolt. He stepped to dodge but got sliced on the arm, causing him to drop his sword.  
__"Two can play at that game," he said with a wicked smile, reaching into his pouch. A moment later, he drew a very familiar sword from it, leveling it back at me. My eyes widened and Ike growled slightly from my side. Ragnell.  
__A moment later I stepped diagonally forward to dodge the bolt of magic he shot from its blade. Then I stepped to dodge a second bolt, which placed me right in front of Dark Link; his eyes widened and he barely manage to avoid being sliced in half by Alondite. I felt a fury building within me again.  
__How dare he use my love's chosen blade!  
__Dark Link suddenly found himself on the defensive as I stormed forward, my rage carrying my blade faster than he had previously thought possible. I carried one attack straight through to the next; a familiar blue aura seemed to form around me, and suddenly I saw my goal in sight. Only a little farther, and I would be out...!  
__Then Dark Link jumped further back than before, and drew out his bow. Leveling an arrow at Ike, he said "Halt, or I shall kill him here and now."  
__I paused for just a moment, my eyes meeting his. We stared each other down for what seemed an eternity—and I took the gamble of my skill and my love's life.  
I started forward again.  
__He fired. I swung Alondite down.  
__The beam of magic sliced through the arrow and went on to cleave the bow in half.  
__Dark Link stumbled backwards as I caught up to him, kicking him against the wall and ripping Ragnell from his grasp.  
Ike fell to his feet for just a second to retrieve his blade, just as Dark Link dove for it.  
__I kicked the Shadow off and pulled my love close to me once again. He gripped his chosen blade weakly in his hands.  
__We stepped out in the moonlight.  
I reached for the warp powder.  
__Dark Link screamed.  
__Light._

_And so I found myself outside the Mercenary Fort, with no warp powder left. I sat against a tree, Alondite on the ground beside me. Ragnell dropped next to it. Ike lay crumpled in my lap.  
__"Zelgius..." Ike murmured softly as I reached up to take my helmet off. "Th...thank you..."_  
_I set my helmet aside and looked back at him. "You had me worried, my love. ...Promise me you won't do anything so reckless again. Please."  
__"I promise." he said, wrapping his arms around me. "I'll...never... make you worry again..."_  
_He leaned up a little and kissed me gently on the mouth. I reached an arm around him, hugging him close.  
__Never wanting to let go again._

Zelgius woke up in his bed in the Mercenary Fort. The black armor was nowhere in sight.  
He felt a comforting presence at his side, and smiled faintly. Ike murmured something in his sleep and nestled a bit further into Zelgius' side.  
Zelgius turned over to face him, wrapping an arm around him, gentle so as not to wake him.  
_We're safe, Elena. _he thought. _As I promised.  
_

_And so Courage escapes...  
__But Wisdom will not be so lucky._

* * *

**A/N:  
**

_My stories seem so depressing recently...hopefully this one is a bit better, though~ I like to call this my "Zelgius" chapter for some reason(you could also consider it a reference to "Fire Emblem: The Hunger Games" because of the first-person in italics from Zelgius' point of view).  
For some reason, the idea of Zelgius getting an Eclipse on a door makes me laugh. c:  
Hope you liked~ Reviews are appreciated, as always, and I'd also like to mention that I know my stories can be confusing, so if you have any questions I'll do my best to answer them! :3  
_

___~DarkieDucessa_  



	20. IXX

**~Chapter Nineteen**

_December 12__th__, 648. Castle Nox._

For one of the few times in his fairly long life, Tibarn was at a loss.

"Let me get this straight," he said, studying the girl's face hard. "Your father... _ran off_ in the middle of the night... to save _Ike..._ from _Dark Link..._ in _Crimea._"

Elena paused, then nodded. "That sums it up pretty well, yes."

The Hawk couldn't keep from snorting. "So it's happened. Zelgius' finally snapped, has he?"

"I don't see why you would say that," the girl replied, crossing her arms defiantly. "He is a very sane man. I'm sure he knows what he's doing."

"Little girl, did your father ever tell you how he fought Dark Link once before?" Tibarn asked sharply. "How he _lost,_ and nearly got himself killed?"

"Oh, leave her alone, Tibarn." Naesala said, walking up to join them. "It's not her fault who her father is."

"Well, what, did she _tell _you what Zelgius did?" the Hawk demanded.

"Leanne told me," the Raven replied smoothly. "She said she'd heard it from the Apostle..."

"You have to admit, the man's crazy!"

"He has his ways," Naesala said vaguely. "I assure you, he is no fool."

"How do you think he's even going to _get_ there?"

"I don't know, but obviously he found a way."

"And why would you say that?"

"Just ask your Eyes and Ears," the Raven said firmly. "Neither of them have seen or heard Zelgius within a hundred miles since they woke up this morning. I don't know how he did it, but he did it. He can only be in Crimea—or Gallia or Goldoa or southern Begnion, though what reasons he'd have to go there I have no idea."

Tibarn _hmmphed_ and glanced back at Elena. "Still... He left you behind like this? With no one to take care of you or anything?"

"He said I should stay with the Apostle during the fighting." the girl replied. "Or you if she's busy."

"What the—Me?" the Hawk demanded incredulously. "Why the hell would he stick me with a responsibility like that?"

"Well, he said either you or Ranulf, and I haven't seen _him_ around for a while." she said. "Why? Never had a _responsibility_ like me to take care of?" Then she stormed off.

Naesala whistled. "That was bad."

"Shut up."

"You aren't starting off your relationship very well with your girl, Tibarn." he teased. "After all, you'll be stuck with her until we find either Ike or Zelgius again—and who knows when that will be, with us marching onward to Begnion tomorrow?"

"I said shut up!" Tibarn fumed as the Raven walked off. "Stupid bird..."

_Just outside Melior_

It took a few hours before sunlight broke through the cloud cover over Crimea's capital city. The walls and houses seemed deceptively shiny and new—it was hard to guess the evil that lurked inside.

In a grove of trees, barely half a mile from the city, a young green-haired woman awoke from her slumber, and was slightly confused by her surroundings. She sat up and pushed aside the tree branches that concealed her, crawling out from under the tall evergreen that had sheltered her from the snow, and looked around. She gasped slightly when she saw Melior in the distance. _Finally,_ she thought.

She heard a rustling behind her and turned to find herself facing her blue-haired knight commander. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed her other three companions just waking up, them also having slept under trees.

But her eyes were on her knight. "Geoffrey," she said softly. "I—I never thought I would be this happy to leave my own home..."

He offered her his hand, smiling faintly. "I understand perfectly, your Majesty."

She took it—then impulsively fell forward into his arms, laughing and bursting into tears at the same time. Geoffrey was slightly off-balance and spun a bit when he caught her, which only made her laugh harder. He smiled as she looked up into his eyes again.

She suddenly leaned up and kissed him on the mouth, causing him to start. She let her head fall back again, smiling brightly, happy tears glistening on her cheeks. She was more radiant than Geoffrey had seen her in months...and he'd forgotten how wonderful that smile was.

"Good morning," she said cheerily.

This time it was he who leaned in to kiss her. He didn't pull back so quickly, either. He couldn't help it...

Roy, looking up at them from under his tree, whistled quietly. "It's about time!" Sharon and Marcia laughed from behind him.

The pair looked down at them; Geoffrey was slightly red, but Elincia was unfailingly happy. "Don't spoil the moment," she teased. "Besides, if it's about time for anyone, what have you and Sharon been up to recently?"

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Sharon demanded, pretending to be offended.

Marcia laughed again, rolling out from under the tree, and got to her feet. "That's 'what's that supposed to mean, _your Majesty'_ to you." she said with mock seriousness.

"Still, the Queen has a point." Roy said teasingly. "Whaddaya say, sweetheart? Wanna make out?"

Sharon made a fair attempt at kicking while lying down. He rolled back, laughing; "Come back here, coward!" she shouted good-naturedly, crawling after him.

Geoffrey still looked kind of red; Elincia noticed and turned back towards him. "Pay no heed to them," she said, smiling, and leaned in to kiss him again.

"Is _everyone _on the lover's bandwagon these days?" Marcia complained cheerfully.

_Apostle's Army_

"You can't be serious." Ranulf said incredulously when he heard the news.

Ducessa shrugged. "I didn't believe it much when I heard it, either."

"I understand why he would want to save his husband," Alyxaidra said contemplatively, "but then he would leave his girl behind...? That doesn't seem like him."

"I'm not a kid!" Elena snapped. "Why does everyone treat me like I can't do anything!?"

"That's not what I meant," Alyx quickly said.

Ducessa patted the smaller girl on the shoulder. "She just meant that, she didn't think General Zelgius was the type to leave his daughter behind."

"...Well, still." Elena mumbled. "Everyone seems to think I'm just a little girl who can't do anything. Even Tibarn! Why did Father have to tell me to ask _him_ to look after me!?"

"Oh, come on," Ranulf said. "He's not _that_ bad."

"He's a jerk!"

"Granted, he can be a bit rough sometimes..." Alyx muttered.

Elena looked at Ranulf pleadingly. "Are you _sure_ you couldn't look after me instead?"

The blue Cat scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Well, eh, Elena, I'd like to, but, well... I have a lot of duties and responsibilities right now; I don't think I'd be able to watch out for your safety very well. Y'know, what with all this army commanding, commander commanding, female infighting, taking care of Darkie..."

"I _told_ you I could take care of myself!" the other Cat insisted.

"Meh." He poked her in the ribs where they were broken and she yelped. "That paladin got you pretty good, Darkie. And it's less of 'taking care of you' than 'making sure you don't do something stupid and reopen that lance wound'."

"I said I'd be careful, Captain. Isn't that enough?" she grumbled.

"You know he's right," Alyx said. "If you push yourself, you'll end up off the field for even longer."

"So I guess I'm stuck with the jerkass Hawk king..." Elena mumbled.

Ranulf chuckled. "I wonder what he'd do if he heard you say that..."

"Perish the thought!" Ducessa replied cheerfully.

_Nevassa_

Almedha was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown when Mars, Stefan, and Elice Caeda brought Pelleas back to the capital alone. "Where is the army!? Where is that girl Micaiah!? Oh, my Pelleas...What's happened to you?!" she wailed, rushing to the three as they entered, with Pelleas being carried unconscious by Mars.

"We were attacked at Castle Nox..." Mars said, setting the king down unceremoniously. "We were completely outmatched. Micaiah was killed, along with over half the army."

"Oh, my poor Pelleas..." Almedha continued her worrisome fretting, completely ignoring the other three people in the room. Mars took that as invitation to leave, and quickly made his exit; Elice Caeda and Stefan followed suit.

"What happens now?" Elice Caeda asked when they were outside again. "We've brought Pelleas back, as you insisted."

"I don't know..." Mars said quietly. "There doesn't seem to be much we _can _do, really."

"If that's the case, shall I and Li-cae return to the desert?" Stefan suggested. "I suppose you could come with us, too."

"No, Stefan," Elice Caeda said, placing a hand on his arm, "we cannot simply disappear again. The war will soon come to Begnion, and nowhere in that country is safe."

"There's nowhere else to go." Mars said definitively. "Crimea is occupied by Hyrule; Daein's army is destroyed, its monarchy practically along with it; and I highly doubt that any of the laguz countries would allow us, what with the current state of things."

"What do you suggest, then?" Elice Caeda asked.

Mars thought about it for a few minutes, fingering his sword. "We have to leave Daein," he finally said. "The Shadow knows I'm here, so the longer I linger the more likely he is to find me. Crimea is obviously out. Do we have any contact with Will in Begnion?"

Elice Caeda nodded. "I received a message from him shortly before we left the desert. He is in service to Prime Minister Lord Sephiran; Dustin and Kester are with him as well. He warns that Dark Link may be watching Lord Sephiran, so going to him would not be wise."

"Kester's all right? That's good; I was worried about him when he disappeared... Alright, I've decided." Mars straightened slightly. "We'll go to Begnion—with the Apostle's army."

Elice Caeda frowned. "The Apostle? What if someone there recognizes you from the other side?"

"It doesn't matter," he replied firmly. "I won't be a simple mercenary there, anyway; I will be the Prince of Altea, and if someone questions me on my previous employment, I will not hesitate to answer."

"Are you sure that's such a good idea...?"

"I don't care. I'm glad I met King Pelleas, and I'm happy to have fought for him, even if the cause was unjust... And also, if the bearer of the third mark is with the Apostle, as I suspect, we will be stronger against the Shadow fighting together rather than separately."

Stefan nodded. "Righty-o, then, it's off to the Apostle! Nice girl, met her only once, from a distance, never actually spoke, but she seemed charming. Well! Shall we depart, your Highness?"

"I'm not higher than anybody, Stefan—least of all you and Elice Caeda. My name will do just fine."

_Apostle's Army_

Kaj tossed a small rock from his perch on a boulder, sending it rolling down the hill to clatter amongst the stones below. He stared at it as it bounced and rolled, seemingly fascinated, never even twitching in the slightest.

Levail examined the tip of the Wishblade, which he'd been sharpening(even magical weapons needed a touch-up every now and then). "So, did you hear the news?" he asked. "About General Zelgius?"

"Who hasn't?" Kaj replied, tossing another rock to follow the first. "I suppose it means we've lost both our famous mercenary generals..."

"Do you think he'll make it?" the young sentinel asked. "To Crimea, and find General Ike?"

"I doubt it. Ike's probably dead by now anyway, if what the Raven king said is any reference." He tossed a third rock, then leaned back, stretching his arms behind his head. "After all, what use would the Shadow have for a common mercenary?"

"I wouldn't call General Ike 'common', but..." Levail sighed. "I suppose you're right...But then, wouldn't General Zelgius have thought that as well? And in that case, why would he have set out to do something so foolhardy?"

"Dunno. Maybe he wants to try and find any of the other Greil Mercenaries—if any of 'em survived, that is." Kaj threw a fourth rock to follow the rest, then slid off the boulder, landing lightly on his feet. "The Shadow probably killed them, too. The whole mission was probably pointless, since I don't see why he would've kept Queen Elincia or any of the Royal Knights alive after conquering the country..."

"You certainly have a pessimistic view of Hyrule," Levail said with a slight laugh. But when he spoke again the humor had left his voice; "Though...I suppose you _would_ know, better than almost anyone."

Kaj nodded almost imperceptibly, then walked to the cliff edge and bent down, looking over it. "I suppose we really should be getting back soon..." he muttered. "Pity. I like it up here; once we rejoin the army it'll be all flat ground marching again."

"Well, it could've been worse." Levail chided, walking over to join the rogue. "It could've snowed four feet overnight."

Kaj laughed. "Yeah, there's always that." He stood up. "But I'd still rather not be with any damn army at all."

"You _volunteered_ to be my second-in-command," the young sentinel reminded him.

"Yeah, but that was just 'cause I liked you and I was spying on the others anyway. Now I'm getting bossed around by people I don't even like that much, and occasionally people I used to spy for, which was fun until he joined this side." The dark-haired boy sighed. "I guess there's no help for it; I'll be stuck here for awhile yet, unless I get lucky and get fired."

Levail sighed as well. "Kaj, if you're that desperate to leave the army, you could just request a discharge from the Apostle. I hardly think she'd disagree, considering—"

"What, my background?" The rogue snorted. "There's no _way_ I'm ever bringing that up around any of them. I hate getting attention... and besides, I want to build a reputation as being a feared assassin, not a kid rogue from some continent that got destroyed."

"...I could get you discharged, too." Levail muttered. "I am your commander, after all."

"No, no—then I'd just feel guilty for putting you to that trouble and then running off." Kaj said quickly. "Let's talk about discharges after this war is over, and I can convince you to leave with me..."

"Again with that?" The sentinel laughed quietly. "I told you, I'm not leaving the Apostle's service."

"Not yet, anyway." Kaj slid his hand into Levail's and smirked. "I'm already working to remedy that, my dear Levail..."

The young sentinel reddened ever so slightly.

_Mercenary Fort_

Much to everyone's surprise, Ike was up and walking by noon. When Soren had shouted, bringing everyone else's attention to the two sleeping warriors outside, and they'd been brought in, Ike had been so badly injured Rhys almost fainted just looking at his wounds. But after drinking the last use of a vulnerary that Rolf offered, and sleeping at Zelgius' side for over six hours straight, the mercenary commander was eager to stand and walk on his own. He was still weak, of course—and there was no way that Mist would let him onto a battlefield just yet—but he was making a faster recovery than anyone could have dared hope.

Which also meant that there were matters he had to settle.

"Ike. We have to talk."

The commander tore his gaze from the whirling snow outside the window, at Titania. She had a sad but serious expression on her face, and he realized that the rest of the mercenaries were gathered behind her. Even Mia, who held her head in her hands miserably(she still had a terrible headache), and Soren, who looked as if barely able to stand(he was still sick and coughed quietly occasionally).

"I don't see what there is to talk about," he replied, looking back out the window.

"You know what it is." she said firmly. "You can't avoid the subject, Ike. Not any longer."

He sighed faintly and turned fully around. "Fine. Let's get this over with."

Deirdre glanced up at Shinon worriedly. "Should I leave?"

"Only if you must." the marskman replied stiffly. Her eyes lowered and she reached down to grip his hand tightly.

There was a lengthy, awkward silence. "Did you know?" Soren finally asked.

"Yes." Ike replied, unafraid.

"But...then...why didn't you tell me?" Mist asked nervously.

He sighed. "Because I knew how you would react. How all of you would react. I'm telling you, he's not like...what you may think."

"What I _think?_" Mist slammed her fist against the wall angrily. "What do you mean, what I _think!?_ Ike, he's the _Black Knight!_ He killed our _father! _How can you even stand to be in the same _room_ as him!?"

"What _do_ you think?" Ike demanded. "I know what he's done, alright!? He told me himself!"

"Ike..." Titania said faintly. "Why...? Why would he tell you, of all people? Why did you have to become such good friends, even before you knew? Why...why did you _marry_ him?"

The commander paused for a long moment. "All those questions have the same answer, Titania." he finally said. "Because I love him."

"_Why!?"_ the deputy commander demanded suddenly. "_Why do you have to love him!?"_ Then she choked down a small sob and looked aside, ashamed of her outburst.

"This is...such a shock." Gatrie said, his voice barely audible. "All this time, we've been..._living_ with the bastard that killed Commander Greil..."

"Yeah." Shinon said, glaring at Ike. "All this time, you knew—and you kept it secret. Always with the damn secrets!"

"Well, why do you think I had to keep it a secret, then, Shinon?" Ike snapped. "Or any of you? You would have hated him no matter what else I said! You would have tried to kill him yourself!"

"With good reason!"

"He's a good man! You all know that!"

"That doesn't change anything!"

"Stop it!" Soren cried. "Just...just stop!" Shinon and Ike turned to look at him. "Ike...just...tell us the truth."

"The truth...?" the commander asked with a pause.

"Yes." The boy nodded. "The truth of everything. Is he really the Black Knight, and did he really do all the things that we believe he's done?"

Ike sighed deeply, then turned back to face the rest of the mercenaries. "Well...that depends on your point of view."

"What do you mean?" Mist asked quietly.

"...Yes...yes, he did kill Greil. I can't deny that." Ike said flatly. "He did threaten my and Mist's lives; I can't deny that either. Princess Leanne's kidnapping in the Mad King's War; yes, he did that too. But you want the real truth of it?" He drew in a breath. "He was only taking orders from Ashnard when he kidnapped Leanne. He was bluffing when he threatened our lives. And he never meant to kill Greil. It was not his orders, it was not what he set out to do, it was _never_ his intention. It just...happened."

"You expect us to believe that?" Shinon snapped.

"Why not?" Ike asked. "After all... it isn't like any of us are any better."

There was an awkward silence. "Well?" Ike finally demanded. "Am I wrong?"

"I...don't know what you mean." Titania finally said.

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it." the mercenary commander said flatly. "We're all murderers here. There isn't one person in this room who hasn't killed at some time or other. There are very few of us here who haven't ever threatened anybody's life before, and very few of _those_ who weren't bluffing when they said it. And altogether, killing is worse than kidnapping, and we've done far too much of the former already. _Am I wrong?_"

"Ike, you can hardly compare us to..._him._" Mist said faintly.

"Can't I?" he demanded. "Think, Mist! You used to hate killing, be afraid of killing anyone at all! You swore you'd never kill anyone...and then, in your first battle with a weapon, against your first wounded soldier...he died. How'd _that_ happen, hmm?"

"I—it—" she stammered.

"You killed him, Mist. _You._ Killed wanting to. _Exactly like Zelgius!_ You." He pointed at Shinon. "How many people have you killed, Shinon? How many have been murdered by your arrows? How many families mourn their fathers', their husbands' and brothers' deaths at the hands of _you!?_"

"But—"

"Oh, yes, we were lucky. We actually _know _who killed Greil, and that's why_we_ think we have the right to be angry about it! Want revenge, yes! _Everyone_ hates the_Black Knight_ because _he_ killed _Greil!"_ Ike was ranting now and he didn't care how it looked. "Imagine, Titania, if you had been with my father when all the friends of those he's killed came along wanting revenge! Imagine hearing their stories and trying to convince yourself that he was a bad man, that he should die! Even if you had _believed _what they said—would you have let them kill him, Titania? _Would you!? Because I don't think you would have!_"

"Ike, please, calm down..." she said weakly.

"None of us are innocent." he declared. "Boyd, Rolf, Gatrie, Shinon, Deirdre, Mia, Rhys, Titania, Soren, Mist, me, Zelgius... hell, practically none of the people we know are innocent! Even _Elena_ has killed now! And after all this death, all this cruelty and killing and murder and _everything..._ after _everything you've done,_ you want to hold the one person most important to me in this world accountable for _one man's death,_ when there are so many deaths that you have yet to take the blame for!" Ike laughed with no humor in his voice. "We're all _murderers!_ Every damn last one of us! We _all_ deserve to _die_ as much as you ever thought Zelgius would!"

"That's enough."

Ike stopped immediately at the sound of Zelgius' voice. The man stepped behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. "If you overexert yourself, love, it will take longer to recover. You should be more careful." The blue-haired mercenary nodded, breathing heavily.

"As for the rest of you," Zelgius said firmly, looking to meet their gazes, "I am not the man I once was, nor shall I ever be him again. I used his armor to save Ike, nothing more; I care not for what you do with it now, throw it away or destroy it to your heart's content. I only ask that you leave me and my love in peace." Then, wrapping his arm around Ike's shoulders, he led the younger man from the room. The door swung shut quietly behind them.

The rest of the mercenaries stood in a lengthy, awkward silence. Until Mist finally spoke; "Is that it, then? Are we supposed to just... forget everything he's ever done?"

"I don't know, Mist..." Titania said faintly.

"I do." Soren forced himself to straighten. "I'm going to follow my commander's orders, to the end. I care not for what the rest of you decide on." Then he went after the other two.

The door remained open when he was gone. The rest of the mercenaries eyed each other.

Then Titania sighed, stood up, and followed Soren out the door. A moment later, Mia shrugged to Rhys cheerfully and followed her.

One by one, the other mercenaries went to join the growing group in the hallway. A group that Ike and Zelgius watched patiently; that went to stand beside their pair of commanders as others came to join them.

Rolf. Rhys. Boyd. Gatrie. Shinon paused for a long moment, before gripping Deirdre's hand even tighter and walking out to join the others(with her trotting along faithfully behind him).

Finally, Mist stood alone at the end of the hallway, facing the rest of the mercenaries. Ike's eyes met hers pleadingly. "Mist...? Please?"

She tore her gaze away. "I...I'm sorry, Ike, I just...I c-can't live with him. Not anymore."

"Is that your final answer?" His voice was soft and regretful.

She took a step back, not meeting his eyes, and choked down a sob. "...Y-yes. I...I'm sorry. I'll...I'll see you...later..."

Then she turned and fled.

The rest of the mercenaries stood in silence... as that one last member ran out of the fort, away from them, away from the truth that she couldn't face.

Into the whirling snow.

_Hours later, a lone figure stands in the snow alone. Lost, confused; betrayed, alone. She knows not where to go, only that she cannot go back. Cannot go back to her family, her friends, the man she loved but never had the courage to tell..._

_She left them of her own volition. She left because they had betrayed her; and in doing so, in not forgiving as she had done for so many things so many times before... for not forgiving this one, last memory... she has betrayed them. She has abandoned her home, her life, for that betrayal... and now she is entirely alone._

_She asks herself questions, again and again. Why? Why didn't I see it earlier? Did he really know, all this time? How could he have lied for so long?_

_What will I do now?_

_And then... like a dark angel descending from heaven...she is sheltered from the snowfall by black wings. A silent figure steps beside her, offers his hand and soft words, of safety, of promises she doubts he will keep._

_But she has nowhere else to go._

_His hand feels even colder than hers. And for a long moment that fails to end, she wishes she knew how to warm his heart again._

* * *

_**Updated Author's Note!** Because I didn't have enough time to do it yesterday, as my DM had finally arrived and I had to run to the game room~_

_Heh...Tibarn and Elena's relationship doesn't start off well at all...it kinda gets worse/better in the next chapter, too...  
(I think I might've rushed Geoffrey and Elincia's relationship...^^;)  
Ah, Kaj(or **-SPOILER-** Jak Ogma, as I'm pretty sure you've guessed by now) and Levail...I've been in a mood for those two recently~ (you'll probably see more of them next chapter, too~)  
Ike's speech to the rest of the Mercenaries(about Zelgius)...is entirely my opinion. I came up with the whole thing months ago when I first got into the Ike/Zelgius pairing...(kind of as an excuse for myself for liking the pairing^^;)...And it stuck. I figure Ike spent all night thinking about it after he found out and came up with this...and he(and I) firmly stick by it.  
__Don't ask what the **** I was thinking when I wrote the end. I don't know myself. :l (You'll see who it is in the next chapter, though...if you haven't already guessed) (ooh, suspense! *shot*)  
Seeya next time! (Or maybe sooner, if I can write a bunch on chapter 22...I'm worried I'll catch up to myself...^^;)  
_

___~DarkieDucessa  
_


	21. XX

**~Chapter Twenty**

_December 13__th__, 648._

_So, how foolish has my shadow been today? _the quiet voice in Dark Link's mind asked teasingly.

"I don't know what you mean," he replied flatly.

Dark Link was in Castle Crimea once again, drawing out his army and battle plans. Shard lay curled up quietly in the corner, imitating sleep. The snow hadn't stopped, but rays of sunlight were visible, burning in through the stained windows and making intricate patterns on the bare stone floor.

_You know what I'm talking about,_ the voice stated. _Your new guest._

"What about her?"

_Do you really think she will be of any use to you? If anything, she is a spy for the mercenaries._

"The girl is too naïve to be a spy." Dark Link reasoned. "Too... innocent."

_Perhaps that's what she'd _like _you to believe._

"I am not a fool." the Shadow said firmly. "I know what I'm doing. If you don't like that, you can just go silent again."

_You know I can't really do that. I still have a conscience—though yours died many years ago._

"Clever words from a helpless voice in his own Shadow's head," Dark Link countered.

_That's hardly my fault. _You_ were the one who couldn't stand dying and had to keep me alive._

"A decision I'm regretting more and more with every word you speak," the Shadow snapped. "Now be silent."

_Perhaps...for now. But when your army is sabotaged and the girl is laughing in your face, don't come crying back to me._

"I said—" Dark Link cut himself off when he heard the door quietly close. Glancing up, he saw his guest had entered the room.

"Who were you talking to?" she asked.

Dark Link waved the question aside. "No one of importance." The voice scoffed, causing the Shadow to snap at him again; "Be silent." Then, glancing quickly at the girl, who looked a bit confused, he added. "Not you, I was...never mind."

The girl stepped forward to join him, glancing down at the papers on his desk. "What are you writing?"

_See? She's already at work,_ the voice said nastily.

Dark Link ignored it and answered the girl; "Simply drawing up the march orders for my forces. It should not concern you."

She nodded understandingly and stepped back a pace so she wouldn't see what he was writing. He went back to it. The voice grumbled. There was a lengthy pause of silence, save for the sound of Dark Link's pen scratching on the paper.

The girl eventually walked over to Shard, kneeling down carefully beside him. His eyes flicked open and he studied her carefully. She reached out a hand slowly, and he let her stroke his muzzle gently, even making a small purring sound.

"I never did catch his name," the girl said softly, continuing to stroke him.

"It's Shard," Dark Link called from his desk. "He is named after what he came from."

_What, are you going to tell her all your secrets? That's a first._

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"...Perhaps I will explain more at a later date." he said, returning to his writing and mumbling to the voice to shut up. The voice laughed at him.

Shard continued purring as the girl stroked his neck, careful not to scratch herself on his sharp, cold scales. She paused for a brief moment, then frowned. "He doesn't breathe," she said, puzzled. Reaching down, she put a hand near his heart; her frown deepened. "His heart doesn't beat, either."

_She's figuring you out,_ the voice teased.

Ignoring him, Dark Link addressed the girl; "That is because... he is a creation of the Triforce of Power."

"What's a Triforce?"

He'd forgotten how little she knew of it. "This," he replied, holding up his left hand so she could see the red mark there. "Shard is...well...a shard of it, so to speak, materialized by my design into what he is. Once I collect the other two Triforces, he will cease to exist."

She paused for a long moment, looking deeply into Shard's pupil-less red eyes. "...That seems sad, don't you think?" she asked, not turning. "He's a person too. Doesn't he have just as much right to live?"

Dark Link was silent for a very long moment. "I...I cannot answer that." he finally said. "It doesn't matter, anyway."

The girl sighed slightly, then stood up. Shard watched her leave the room with no small trace of longing. Dark Link watched his dragon contemplatively, then glanced at the girl's back as she closed the door behind her.

_So now you see the truth of my words,_ the voice said. _Even if she is not a spy, she will no doubt confuse you._

"You just don't want me to use her as a bargaining chip with Courage," Dark Link said quietly.

_Well...Once a Hero, always a Hero, I suppose._

"Still...for once, you are right." the Shadow murmured. "She is innocent enough...perhaps too innocent."

Then he had an idea. It was cruel, but it would work.

_...So now you think of this...Are you sure that would be a wise option? It would take much of your power, power you can't afford to lose._

"It may be necessary." Dark Link glanced down at his left hand, studying the red triangular mark. "All the same, I will have to keep an eye on her..."

_The Apostle's Army, on the march to Begnion_

Naesala was walking. It wasn't something he did much, especially when on the march, but Leanne and Lucia had convinced him to let one of the healers bandage up his injured wings, and he was on strict orders not to use them for at least two weeks. Now he was getting an idea of what it must have felt like for that Heron prince, Rafiel, when he first lost the use of his wings.

He was startled by a Hawk practically crashing into the ground near him. He raised an eyebrow as it stood and Reverted, confirming it was actually Tibarn. "Were you so surprised to see me on the ground you lost control of your own wings?" he asked sarcastically.

"Don't get full of yourself," the Hawk growled in reply. "Have you seen the girl?"

"Which one? There are a lot in this army."

"Elena!"

"Ah. No, not recently. Why? Lost her already?"

"Oh, shut up." Tibarn sighed in frustration. "I've been looking all over for her, but it's like she's completely vanished."

"Maybe she's hiding from you." the Raven suggested.

"Why would she do that? What did I ever do to her?"

"Well, you called her father insane and you acted as if you wanted nothing to do with her. Maybe she thought you'd be happy if she avoided you."

"Hah! As if! She's driving me crazy worrying that she's going to get herself hurt or lost and I'll have both Ike and Zelgius to answer to."

"Did you ask any of her friends, by chance?"

Tibarn frowned. "Who?"

"Those Altean girls, Ranulf's girlfriend, that little hungry mage? Seen any of them?"

"Er...no."

Naesala laughed. "Well, no wonder you can't find her."

Tibarn groaned and jumped into the air again, flying off. Naesala smiled faintly, then grimaced as he noticed he'd fallen behind the others he'd been walking with. "Aw, geez." He raced to catch up. Lucia glanced back at him and laughed.

_December 14__th__, 648._

Dark Link knelt in the beaten-down snow outside of the lonely fort. The footprints were already lightly dusted by the snow that fell even now, and it was hard to tell how long ago they'd been made.

Shard made a snuffling noise from behind him, nuzzling the girl, who was looking around the place sadly. "They left maybe a day, two days ago... They could've gone anywhere."

_She's right,_ the voice said softly. _They're probably long gone by now. You know how fast us 'Hero' types can move when we want to...Of course, you 'Villian' types can never quite match it._

Dark Link grunted in annoyance, rising to his feet. A Hylian marched out of the central building and saluted, standing at attention. "(Report.)" the Shadow said flatly.

"(Nothing, sir. The place appears to have been abandoned recently, but they left almost nothing of value.)" The Hylian produced a simple wooden box, a bit bigger than head size, and held it out to Dark Link. "(This was the only thing we found, sir.)"

The Shadow took it from him and opened the lid slightly, glancing in and frowning slightly. A moment later he looked back up at the soldier and nodded. "(Good work, sergeant. Gather your men and return to Melior at once. I will be along shortly.)"

The Hylian saluted again. "(Sir, yes sir!)" Then he turned and marched back into the building.

The girl walked over to Dark Link as he opened the lid fully, and started slightly when she saw the content—the Black Knight's helmet. "Why did they leave this behind?" she asked contemplatively.

"Curious, to be sure." Balancing the box against his side, he pulled the helmet out. A folded paper fell out of the bottom; the girl ducked to catch it before it fell to the snow, then unfolded it and offered it to him.

Setting the box down, still holding the helmet, Dark Link accepted the note and scanned the roughly written words;

_If you still wish to claim the Triforce, be at Soze Pass on the 30__th__ of December. If you attempt to harm any of my friends or anyone who is innocent before then, I will deny you what you seek._

_-Courage_

"He is a fool." Dark Link said quietly, crumpling up the note and tossing it aside. "He would have me meet him on his own terms."

"...Why don't you?" the girl suggested.

The Shadow laughed. "He will be plotting for my arrival, of course. Some plan to entrap me, and kill me, though he shall not succeed."

She frowned slightly. "...Well...I don't think you know Ike very well, but he probably wouldn't try to do that." she said finally. "He probably just wants to fight you again—a fair one-on-one. He's like that...a little centered on duels, you know."

Dark Link smiled faintly. "Oh? Well, if he is that naïve, then perhaps I shall take up on his request. After all...I wouldn't want to be 'denied', would I?"

The girl bent down and picked up the note, unfolding it to read. "...Soze Pass? I'm not sure how he plans to get there in just two weeks." she said. "Through the mountains at this time of year, and all."

"It is not impossible, if he keeps a fast pace. He is likely counting on the Apostle's intervention, as well."

"How so?"

Dark Link walked over to Shard. The dragon glanced up, purring slightly as the Shadow stroked his muzzle. "If the Apostle's army marches from its location straight on to Soze...they would make it in perhaps a week. Doubling around to Sienne and back would still place them fairly close on the set date."

The girl joined him by the dragon, wearing a concerned expression. "Do you think he plans to get some message to them, telling them to join him there?"

"Oh, I fully expect that." He smirked. "Which is why I've already detailed my march orders. My armies will move on Begnion with me; if the Apostle decides to intervene, I shall be ready for her... and if she does not, well; then I can get rid of the rest of those meddlesome mercenaries at the same time."

"...You've planned for everything."

"I make it one of my goals to do so."

_December 15__th__, 648._

Elena dashed into Elwyn and Luna's tent so fast she nearly tripped over her own feet. "Sshh!" she whispered loudly.

Luna frowned, puzzled. "Hmm? What—"

"Sssshhh!" Elena whispered again, more frantically. A moment later, they heard a deep voice call "Hey! Where the hell did she go?"

Elwyn sighed. "Don't tell me it's the Hawk king _again_."

Elena nodded urgently. "Can I hide in here for awhile?" she asked.

Luna did a facepalm. "Elena, you cannot hide from him like this! Why do you hate him so much, anyway?"

"I don't hate him, I just don't _like_ him and I don't want him on my back!" the young girl replied indignantly. "I'm a little offended already that Father thought I needed watching, not to mention he wanted _him_ to watch me!"

"Well, I don't want to have to go through another round of his interrogation on your whereabouts." Elwyn set aside her pile of used Wind tomes(she was repairing their damaged bindings so she could use them again) and stood up. "I'll go send him off."

"No! You'll make him curious!" Elena begged.

Elwyn was already out of the tent. "My lord?" she called faintly.

Tibarn glanced around, fixing on her. "Oh. You're one of those twins, from Altea."

She nodded. "Elwyn, my lord. Is there something you require?"

"Yeah, I could use a little help finding Elena..."

"Why are you looking for her, anyway?"

"Why?" He snorted. "Because I haven't seen her in two days, and as stupid as it makes me sound, I'm worried about her!"

He thought he heard a giggle and a frantic shush from the tent behind Elwyn. "What was that?"

The mage made a vague gesture. "Just my sister Luna, my lord. Erm...Why is it your responsibility to look after her...?"

"Because I promised her parents a long time ago that I'd look after her if there was no one else."

"Hah!" Elena forgot herself and stuck her head out of the tent. "You're just scared that Father'll have your hide if I go missing!"

"There you are, you little sneak!" he shouted, making a dive for her. She made a little shriek and jumped away, causing him to stumble and nearly trip. She turned and tried to run, but ran smack into Naesala after half a second and fell over, dazed. The Raven started, then started again as Tibarn made straight for the girl again, but ended up almost tripping again. He finally did grab her arm as she got to her feet, though.

"Why the hell were you hiding from me?" Tibarn demanded.

Elena struggled to pull her arm away. "Because you're a jerk and I hate you!"

"I thought you said you just didn't _like_ him very much," Elwyn teased from the sidelines. Elena shot her a glare that spat _Traitor._

"Seriously, do you have any idea how crazy you've driven me over these past two days?"

"Like I care," she snarled, "since _you_ obviously don't!"

"Look, I didn't _really_ mean to call Zelgius crazy, okay? And I wasn't trying to offend you!"

"Well, you certainly did!"

"What did I say?"

"You acted like I was helpless!"

"You're just a kid, okay? What can a little girl like you do?"

"See! You're doing it again!"

"Doing what!?"

"Being an ass!"

"Since when do you even _know_ that word!?"

"I heard _you_ say it!"

"How would you have heard, you were avoiding me for two days!"  
_"That doesn't mean I never overheard anything!"_

Naesala watched this argument in a sort of dazed fascination for a minute, then walked casually over to Elwyn. "Is she trying to run away again?" he asked.

The mage shrugged. "Pretty much."

The raven called over to the pair; "Was she running from you again, Tibarn? You must have a really scary face or something..."

_"__Shut up back there, you stupid bird!"_

"Nowyou're being a hypocrite,you stupid bird!"

_"_What the—! _I'm _not the stupid bird, _he_ is!"

Luna, watching from just inside the tent, giggled slightly. Elwyn smiled. "I'll leave you to it, then!" she called, retreating to join her twin.

Naesala watched Tibarn and Elena's argument for a little longer, then walked away, shaking his head and smirking slightly.

Around the same time as that, Kieran was standing watch on the outskirts of the camp and feeling a bit lonely. Makalov had been wounded in the last battle; it had gotten infected, so now he was sleeping through the fever. And Oscar was off in Crimea somewhere, rescuing their queen.

That part infuriated Kieran. How dare his archrival leave to rescue the Queen and Knight Commander without telling him first! How dare he not bring Kieran along!

Especially since... with Crimea under occupation, Marcia would be in trouble as well.

_He must've been trying to leave me behind so he could steal her away when I wasn't around!_ Kieran thought furiously. _Deceitful squinty coward! Fair lady Marcia, you must withstand his advances until I return to...oh, what's the use?_ He sighed deeply, rubbing his forehead, where it ached after getting banged there in the last battle. _They could both be dead, for all I know. Or maybe they really are off together somewhere, and she really loves him, not me..._

He sighed again. _How depressing is that? Geez...Pull yourself together, man!_

He was startled out of his thoughts by three figures stepping out of the darkness beyond his torch. They were barely visible, and he couldn't quite make them out. "Who's there?" he demanded.

"It's only us, Sir Kieran." one of them said, stepping forward.

Kieran gasped slightly when he saw him more fully. "Your Highness!" he said. "What are you doing in Daein?"

"That is not important." The prince stepped more fully into the torchlight, meeting Kieran's gaze. "I must speak with Apostle Sanaki. Can you direct me to her?"

Kieran nodded, pointing behind him. "She's probably in the meeting tent still, Highness. Just look for a big tent in the middle."

"Thank you." The prince walked past him. The other two figures stepped into the light and followed him; one, Kieran recognized as the prince's younger sister, but the tall green-haired man was a mystery.

_Now...where did you three come from...?_

The apostle was just about ready to give up all this report-reading and go to bed when Tanith stepped into the tent. "Apostle Sanaki? There's someone who wishes to see you."

"Who is it?" Sanaki asked wearily, tossing aside another report and sighing.

"They didn't say, my lady. They did say that they were Alteans."

The apostle's eyebrows raised. "Alteans? …..Alright. Send them in, please."

Tanith nodded, then stepped out of the tent. A few moments later, she escorted in two people Sanaki didn't recognize, and one she thought she did, distantly. "My lady Apostle." the blue-haired man in the front said, bowing slightly. "It is an honor to meet you. I am Marth Lowell... once crown prince of Altea. This is my sister, Elice Caeda, and our escort, Stefan."

"...Marth Lowell?" the apostle said, faintly surprised. "I...I was not aware you were in Begnion."

"I was not, until recently." he replied. "I was...in hiding from King Hyrule. I did spend some time in the service of King Daein..."

"...Pelleas? You worked for him?" she asked.

"Yes...for a short time. I left after the battle of Nox. I was hoping we might travel with your army for a while." he explained.

She thought for a moment. "...Well, yes, of course." she replied. "But...may I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"By chance, were you...close to King Pelleas?"

"...I was his bodyguard."

"Did he...ever say anything about his reasons? For siding with Begnion?"

Marth glanced aside. "Well...to be honest, yes. But...for the interest of any future Daein may hope to have, I will have to withhold that information for now."

Sanaki frowned. "Ah...Very well. Commander Tanith, see to it that they are given any supplies they might need."

"As you command, my lady." Tanith bowed, then quickly led the Alteans out of the tent.

_December 16__th__, 648._

The Army of Hyrule was a dark expanse, stretching out across the landscape as far as the girl could see. She watched in fascination from Shard's back, high above the ground. "How many are there?" she asked in wonderment.

Dark Link, seated in front of her, smirked faintly. "Over a hundred thousand strong."

She gasped. "Over a—? How—how is this possible? Hyrule is hundreds of miles away, across the sea!"

"The Triforce of Power can do many things, my dear." he said smoothly. "One of its powers is the ability to create portals, though the drain on its host when creating ones large enough for armies is great. It took me months to bring this force here, but now that I have it, the Apostle's army doesn't stand a chance."

_There's still some chance,_ the voice said firmly. _Haven't you ever read fairy tales? The good guys always prevail, even against fantastic odds._

"Yes, but those are stories, nothing more. In real life, greater numbers always give the edge." Dark Link replied. Then, realizing he'd confused the girl again, he added to her "I was speaking to—"

"The voice, I know." she interrupted. "I don't understand where that came from, either..."

_She's already picked up on me, eh? Not bad._

"He is an extension of me, nothing more."

_Hah! You're the extension, silly shadow, not me._

"Really?" She frowned. "Like Shard?"

"No, not exactly..."

"I still don't understand."

_You could just tell her the truth._

"You don't have to." Dark Link replied. He looked down again, at the expanse of his army as it marched into the mountains. "It doesn't matter, anyway. I'll be rid of him soon enough."

_Liar._

"Shut up!" He didn't have to explain to the girl this time.

_Apostle's Army_

Elena was in a bad mood. So much so that the aura of grumpiness around her was practically visible.

She also wasn't talking, which was driving the Hawk king nuts.

"Elena." Tibarn said.

She remained silent. "Elena, the silent treatment is not going to change anything." he growled.

She continued to ignore him. "Elena? Look, just say something, okay?"

"That isn't going to work," Naesala commented.

"You stay out of this." Tibarn snapped.

The Raven held up his hands defensively. "Hey, I'm just saying! You have to apologize to her."

"For what?"

"Hah!" Elena laughed mockingly. "Don't tell me you honestly believe you have nothing to apologize for!"

"What did I do!?"

"You tied me to a tree all night!"

"That was so you wouldn't run away again!"

"It was cold!"

"It was cold for me too! I had to sleep out there to make sure nothing tried to eat you!"

"You're a laguz! It's not as bad for you as it is for me!"

"Now you're just being racist!"  
"Well, it's true, isn't it!?"

"Only for Beast laguz! They have all that fur!"

"And you have feathers!"

"Only on the wings!"

"Not when you Shift!"

"Being Shifted gets you tired after a while!"

"_You were supposed to be sleeping!"_

"Stop, already!" Naesala shouted. They both fell silent and turned to him accusingly. "Look, guys, you're being more than a little ridiculous."

"I thought we were settling some important issues." Elena grumbled.

"Are you joking?" Tibarn snapped. "You were being racist!"

"Yeah, well _you_ tied me to a tree!"

"I wouldn't have had to if you weren't trying to run awa—"

"Hey!" Naesala said again. "Just apologize to each other, already!"

"I'm not apologizing until he does." Elena snapped.

"For the love of—" Tibarn did a facepalm. "Are you always this spoiled?"

"Hah! There's another thing you have to apologize for!"

"It's true, though!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"For the love of all things holy, will you two _shut_ _up!"_ Naesala shouted. "You're _both_ being idiots!"

"Well, if she wasn't so..." Tibarn trailed off with a frustrated sigh. "Okay. Fine. Elena, I'm sorry for tying you to a tree and calling you spoiled. Okay?"

"Hmmph." She grumbled for a bit, but finally replied; "I'm...sorry for being racist, and I'm sorry for running away and worrying you."

They glared at each other for a long moment before Naesala intervened; "Okay! Great! Now maybe you two shouldn't talk for a while until you cool off."

"Fine." Elena slowed down and veered off to look for one of her friends.

Tibarn sighed in frustration again. "Has she always been like this?"

Naesala shrugged. "I do think Ike might spoil her a bit."

"Maybe being away from him will be good for her, then."

"Don't say that..."

"Hmmph." Tibarn walked faster, leaving the Raven behind.

Naesala sighed and smiled faintly. "All things considered, you two really should be related," he commented to no one in particular. "You're so much like each other it's unsettling."

Lucia, catching up to him, frowned slightly. "Who are you talking to?"

"Hmm?" He glanced over at her, then laughed slightly. "Oh. No one in particular...just talking about Tibarn and Elena."

"Ah." She put one hand on her hip and glanced over at where the said pair had accidentally bumped into each other again... and were also arguing again, much to Janaff's(who was nearby and also watching) confusion. "The mercenary daughter and the Hawk king. I'm surprised they don't get along better, actually."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, Ike and Tibarn get along pretty well. Zelgius and Tibarn too. Plus they share the same opinions on a lot of things..."

"I guess she just needs to get to know him. And he needs to stop losing his patience with her...she really is just a kid, after all." Naesala laughed again. "But mark my words, Lucia. By the time we find the Greil Mercenaries, they'll be best friends and no one will be able to tell that they were ever enemies."

"M-My lords! It's good to see you're safe!" Elwyn said with a little shock, dropping to one knee and bowing her head respectfully. Luna quickly did the same.

Elice Caeda quickly knelt down and caught the mage's hands, pulling her back to her feet. Luna rose with her. "None of that, now." the princess chided gently. "I am glad that you are both well."

"How did you get here?" Elwyn asked. "I thought you were going to Sienne... and Prince Marth to Daein."

"I do not believe that Daein is safe for my brother anymore," Elice Caeda explained. "It is likely that Roy was forced to give the Shadow information, and thus...he had to leave."

"And Li-cae got lost in the desert, so that's how she ended up here." Stefan added.

Elice Caeda smiled faintly and glanced back at him. "Yes, there is that as well..."

"Actually...Wasn't the Apostle's army under the command of Generals Ike and Zelgius, from the Greil Mercenaries?" Marth asked curiously. "I haven't heard mention of them since we got here."

"Ah, yes, about that..." Elwyn cleared her throat. "General Ike took the majority of the Greil Mercenaries and rode back through Daein to Crimea, to assist Queen Elincia after the occupation."

"Then we received information from King Kilvas...that revealed that the Mercenaries had stumbled into a trap, and likely been captured or killed by Dark Link..." Luna continued.

"...Which led to General Zelgius' disappearance about four days ago, to go rescue them." Elwyn finished.

"So none of them are here..?" Marth frowned slightly. "Pity. I was hoping to meet General Ike...Deirdre left with them?"

"Yes," Luna replied. "Have you gotten any information about the others? Dustin..."

"...or Kester..." Elwyn continued.

"...or Will?"

"As far as we know, they are in Begnion somewhere, in the service of Lord Sephiran." Elice Caeda replied. "Tiki and her children are still in Goldoa. And of course, you two and Jak are here in the Apostle's army..."

Elywn blinked. "What? We haven't seen Jak..."

"...since we got here." Luna finished, equally puzzled.

Marth frowned. "Really? I could've sworn I saw him a few hours ago... He was with one of the Begnion commanders, I believe."

"Young guy, blondish-brown hair, brown eyes, average height, red armor." Stefan supplied helpfully.

"Ah...that must be General Levail." Luna said contemplatively. "We..."

"...haven't talked much to him." Elwyn finished. "Maybe..."

"...we should go see him sometime." Luna murmured.

Marth blinked. "...Is it just me, or have you two gotten even more confusing? In that...identical twin sort of way, I mean..."

They smiled in unison. "Maybe we have," they chimed. Then they turned and walked off in step.

Marth blinked again, then shook his head and sighed. Elice Caeda smiled. "Well, truth be told, brother...I believe we've all changed a little since we last saw each other."

"Yes...I know." he replied. "For better or worse."

"Well, if we didn't, where would be the fun in going places?" Stefan asked cheerfully, slipping his hand into Elice Caeda's. "At least, I'd like to think Li-cae's changed a bit since we met..."

"Oh, yes, definitely..." she replied, gazing up at him, her eyes sparkling. He turned to face her and smiled warmly.

Marth blinked a third time and sighed again, more cheerfully. "All things considered, I'm glad I'm not sharing a tent with you two." he said.

They were too lost in their own, private little world to notice.

_December 20__th__, 648. Sienne._

The Begnion Senate was in a fair uproar. The four leading senators, Valtome, Hetzel, Numida, and Oliver, were in a loud argument amongst themselves over what should be done concerning the Apostle, the former Prime Minister, and Daein; the few hastily-elected new senators to make the numbers match up sat in a daze, watching the others argue; and the three from Hyrule watched from the side, amused, bored, or confused, depending on which one you were looking at.

"Daein failed to halt the Apostle's army, thus they _must_ be eliminated!" Numida declared angrily.

"If we activate the blood pact on them now, the entire country will be wiped out! Soldiers we could still use!" Hetzel argued back.

"The Apostle must be destroyed!" Valtome screeched. "I will execute that insufferable Zelgius and his mercenaries myself! Uwee hee hee!"

"We can't wipe them out publicly, or the citizenry will riot!" Numida shouted. "We should have them dealt with quietly!"

"We should make an example of them!" Valtome retorted at an equal volume. "That will shut the people up!"

"Sephiran should be eliminated first! Then the Apostle will cower, like the child she is!" Numida declared.

"We should kill all those who oppose us immediately!" Valtome argued.

"But if they surrender to us, we can still use them!" Hetzel shouted.

"I shall defeat all those ugly and frightening monsters who would dare attack us!" Oliver screeched.

"No, you twit!" Valtome shouted. "_We're_ supposed to be the frightening ones! So that they'll run from us, screaming like little children!"

"Oh. Well, then I shall capture the beautiful Herons and use their beauty to frighten the ugly ones!" Oliver declared dramatically.

The arguing continued. Shard snorted, overcome with boredom. "How do they ever get anything done?" the girl beside him asked, confused. "They do nothing but argue."

Dark Link, on her other side, laughed, stretching his arms out, an amused smirk on his face. "Many great people have said the same, and yet they do nothing to change. Senates shall always be this way, I suppose. Always arguing, unless someone smart gets in there at tells them what to do."

"But they must have had someone smart in there before, then, or they never would've come up with the plan to undermine the Apostle and all." she reasoned.

"They did." Dark Link's smirk widened, baring his teeth slightly. "He's dead now."

The girl's eyebrows raised. "How do you know?"

"How do you think I got the Kilvas blood pact?"

She shuddered and glanced back at the Senate. Oliver and Valtome were arguing; the girlish man looked like he was about to punch the fat one in the nose, but the latter was oblivious to the veiled threat and shouting something about 'Heron beauty power'. "How is _he_ still alive, anyway?" she asked after a moment, gesturing at Oliver. "I was pretty sure Ike killed him in the Mad King's War."

"The Senate takes care of its own, or so I'm told." Dark Link shrugged. "I believe they had him secretly reinstalled in his manse after his supposed death, where he's been living unchanged for quite some time...and they pulled him out to come here and argue with them after the fall of Castle Nox and Daein."

"Speaking of that," the girl commented, "how come you didn't go to their aid at the castle? I thought you had some kind of deal with the Senate concerning that."

"To be precise...the deal was that I would assist Begnion or its allies against the Apostle, and in return Begnion would assist me in capturing Crimea, as well as hunting down Wisdom and Courage. To answer your question..." The Shadow sighed slightly. "I was busy at the time."

"Busy?"

"Yes. With a certain mercenary commander, as I'm sure you recall."

She shuddered again and glanced away. He noted her action mentally.

_I suppose she isn't completely gone to your side yet,_ the voice pondered.

"She will be, in time." Dark Link mumbled under his breath.

_Before or after you fight Ike at Soze?_

"If she is not before, then I will go with plan B." the Shadow replied.

_You're still planning on going through with that?_

Dark Link sighed, then decided that the argument had gone on long enough. Drawing his sword, he slammed the edge of the blade against the wall, hard. There was a resounding clang as it made a slice before bouncing off; the four arguing senators stopped, glancing back at him.

Straightening, he sheathed his blade again. "You have discussed your options for well over three hours. Now, I believe that unless you will be making a decision, I will be going."

The four senators glared at each other, until Dark Link finally asked; "Will you go to meet the Apostle's army, or cower in your city until she comes to drive you out?"

"We shall march out and meet her face-to-face!" Valtome declared. "The little wretch will cringe before the might of Begnion!"

"Will you be able to assist our troops, King Hyrule?" Hetzel asked.

Dark Link paused for a moment, then replied; "That depends. My forces will be at Soze Pass on the thirtieth of December; I cannot get them to there any earlier than that, so I doubt it if they will be able to assist your forces until then. As for myself personally... I have an errand that I must deal with on the thirtieth, so I will be occupied then; I will most likely be busy before then as well, managing my forces and so forth. I doubt I can be of much help."

"Oh, really!" Numida complained. "You're saying that there's no way you can assist us!?"

"Exactly." Dark Link replied. "Perhaps if my business in Daein is finished quickly, I'll have time to stop by and pick up the pieces of your army after the Apostle decimates it. But that is doubtful. Farewell."

Turning around, he swept out of the room dramatically, leaving the senators to argue more in his wake. Shard got up and followed him; the girl ducked under the dragon's sweeping wings and followed as well.

Out on the snow-covered balcony, Dark Link laughed. "Those fools will be destroyed by the Apostle! Their force may have a slim chance if they hold out for a siege, but sallying out, against over half the Central Army, the Laguz Alliance, some of Crimea, all at once...? Hah!"

"So they really are doomed." the girl mused. "Crimea's already been occupied. Daein's been decimated. It's almost as if you're trying to put the laguz in power..."

"Heh. As if. I could not care less for this continent's politics; if this ends with a broken king and a lonesome child on the thrones of the last two beorc countries, and a pair of enraged kings on the warpath of the laguz countries, then so be it. I only care whether I get the other Triforces before all goes to hell."

_Apostle's Army_

Naesala was starting to wonder if deeply inhaling several elixirs would make his wings heal faster, so he could fly again. He would've done anything to get away from Tibarn and Elena at this point.

"...And furthermore, it is _not_ necessary to tie me to a tree every night so I don't 'run away'!" Elena was saying. "It's December and it's freezing!"

"I know," Tibarn said patiently. "However, I also recall that I gave you a blanket last night!"

"The tree was three feet deep in snow!"

"So what?"

"That's up to my waist!"

"Well, that's _your_ fault for being so damn short!"

"Are they always like this?" Lucia asked contemplatively.

Naesala nodded. "_Ohh_ yeah... most days it's impossible to get them to shut up..."

"I knew they argued, but I never overheard one of their arguments before..." She laughed. "Are they always this stupid, too?"

"Yes!"

"Hey! I am making some valid points over here!" Elena insisted.

"So am I, but nobody cares about _my_ opinions!" Tibarn fumed.

"Really, though, Tibarn, you shouldn't tie her to a tree. It's undignifi—" Lucia was cut off by an 'oof' when she ran straight smack into Volke, who was walking the other way. "Oh! Sorry about that," she apologized.

"Don't do it again," he replied flatly; then he swept by her, continuing on his route.

She paused to watch him as he walked away, and shook her head, sighing slightly. "That man! I don't know why Bastian keeps him around, after he finished his other job."

"Right...What was that again?" Elena asked, temporarily distracted from Tibarn. "The job, I mean."

"Well...I assume you've heard about Lord Renning, the Queen's uncle?" Lucia asked.

The girl nodded. "He died during Daein's occupation of Crimea, three years ago."

"Yeah. It turns out, he didn't actually die, but was given the drug that turns laguz feral by King Ashnard and used as a weapon...Bastian discovered this, caught Renning, and hired Volke to find a way to cure him. They captured the man that developed the drug, Izuka—"

"They caught him?" Elena demanded. "What'd they do with him?"

"I was getting to that." Lucia said. "They tried to make him give them the antidote, but he refused. The four of them were at Fayre in Crimea when Dark Link occupied Melior; they escaped the castle shortly before Dark Link took it himself. Izuka and Renning both escaped, but were promptly captured by Dark Link; Bastian and Volke, pursuing them, were also captured. They were brought to Dark Link's mountain fortress, where they were briefly imprisoned with me and Leanne before Naesala came along and freed us."

"Whose plan involved getting my dad killed, or worse." Elena mumbled.

Naesala looked down at his feet guiltily. "I said I was sorry..."

"Anyway," Lucia continued, "after we were freed and brought here, to the Apostle's army, Bastian had the thought to use the Heron's galdrar to heal Renning. But before he could get them, Izuka escaped again, taking Renning with him."

"I don't remember anyone mentioning that." Elena commented. "Wasn't it reported to the Apostle?"

"Bastian didn't think it necessary." Lucia replied. "So, the two of them escaped. Bastian and Volke tailed them, and eventually found them holed up somewhere on the shore of Lake Semper. Near Talrega, actually. Izuka had a good deal of feral laguz with him as well, and Bastian knew he and Volke couldn't take them alone. So... he came back to pick up some allies. This was around the seventh, I think, just before the battle at Castle Nox. Bastian talked with Skrimir first... of course, he was outraged, and insisted on going to free the feral laguz. Ranulf overheard, and he and a few of his commanders got a good squad of Cats and Tigers to go with them. Then Tibarn saw the commotion and joined in as well. Naesala heard and wanted to go, but he was still injured. Skrimir figured that if the beorc stayed behind, the laguz could go there and get back in a day...so the lot of them ran out, leaving Bastian and Volke behind."

"You were there?" Elena asked, turning to Tibarn.

The Hawk king nodded. "Yeah. If I'd missed it, it would've haunted me, I think."

"You got that right," Naesala mumbled. "Damn! I don't care what that healer said, I _could've_ made it on these wings...even after Tibarn tore them up..."

"Well, you can hardly blame me," Tibarn said firmly. "You knew you had it coming. You're lucky I didn't kill you, but as much as I hate to say it, Leanne likes having you around."

"You could've waited until _after_ we killed Izuka to rip out half my feathers, though!" Naesala insisted.

"Anyway..." Lucia continued, "They all went out and found Izuka, exactly where Bastian had last seen him. They fought for a long time; I don't know all the details, but at some point in the fighting, Renning attacked one of Ranulf's female Cat commanders—Ducessa, was it?—and Ranulf went to her defense...Skrimir went with him...Next thing they knew, Renning was dead." She glanced down at her feet sadly. "It was an accident, perfectly understandable... still, a pity that it happened...Anyway, I believe shortly after that, Tibarn got to Izuka and had the honor of tearing him a new one, so to speak. And that, as they say, was that."

"Wow..." Elena blinked, still looking at Tibarn. "You killed Izuka, then?"

"Hell, yeah!" Tibarn slammed his fists together to emphasize the point. "I only wish I could've made that disgusting filth suffer more before the end!"

Elena blinked again, gazing at the Hawk king with new, admiring eyes.

"So that's why we haven't seen Ranulf recently," Naesala mused. "I remember Tibarn mentioning that that Tiger-Cat was wounded when Renning attacked. Ranulf must be taking care of her."

"He is the kind of person to do that," Lucia agreed. "He's very sweet."

"What did Bastian say when you got back?" Elena asked curiously.

"Oh, that." Tibarn snorted. "He was outraged that we'd killed Renning, of course, but there wasn't anything we could do about it. He finally just thanked us for assisting in ridding the world of twisted madmen, worried over what he was going to tell Elincia, and walked off to worry about how he was going to pay Volke."

"He hasn't already?" Lucia asked.

"Nope. I guess Volke took it as credit or something."

"Oh dear. He's always terribly expensive..." Lucia frowned. "Bastian's probably going to end up pressing Queen Elincia for the money..."

"I agree." Naesala said cheerfully. "Sounds like what I would do, after all."

Lucia elbowed him. "Enough of that! I'd like to think there's _some_one around here with better morals than Bastian," she teased.

"Ah! Why, Lucia, I'm offended!" he replied sarcastically. "I have the best morals of anyone in this camp!"

"I find that hard to believe."

"You wound me, milady!"

Tibarn and Elena groaned in unison. Then they met each other's eyes and grinned.

Naesala smirked. "See? Best friends." he whispered cheerfully.

She smiled and nodded.

"We can both hear you," Tibarn said loudly. "And no, we're not."

"Yeah!" Elena agreed quickly. "We still hate each other! No doubt about it!"

The Raven king and the trueblade laughed. "Yes, yes, of course." Lucia said assuringly.

Later that evening, Levail glanced up, startled, as Kaj ducked into his tent and sat down quickly. His breathing was hard, like he'd been running, and he was fairly tense. "Is something the matter?" Levail asked.

The dark-haired boy shook his head. "No, just...ah...barely managed to avoid the twins, is all...damn...that was close! They don't usually wander over to this side of camp..."

Levail sighed. "...Why do you run from them?" he asked. "I don't think it matters at this point if they see you."

"It's better if they don't." Kaj relaxed slightly. "I don't want to cause King Kilvas any trouble."

"Nobody cares that you worked for him." the young sentinel said. "Since he's on our side now anyway, I doubt it really matters."

"Yeah, well, I'd still much prefer to stay out of the way of the other Alteans." Kaj said quietly. "It'd just bring more problems and confusion for everybody."

"...I still don't see why you believe that." Levail murmured.

"Oh, it's not like they care anyway." Kaj grumbled. "None of them cared much about me. Always the rogue; always the outcast. Not that I mind. You know I prefer to avoid crowds."

"They're still your friends."

"Meh. It doesn't matter. Revealing myself now would just confuse everyone and make everyone think I'm more important than I am. I hate that." Kaj turned to the young sentinel and smirked. "No; the shadows are for me, my dear Levail. They can keep the light all to themselves."

Levail sighed again. "As usual... you simply care about yourself, and not the fact that your remaining missing might be causing others to worry." he said ruefully.

"Why, Levail," Kaj said mockingly, getting up and walking over to the sentinel, "I thought you said you didn't care whether I stayed in shadow or light."

"I don't...not really." Levail replied. "I just wish I wasn't your... _only_ friend."

Kaj slipped his hand under the young sentinel's chin, lifting it so he met his eyes. He was so short normally, it was usually Levail who stood over him; for some reason, the dark-haired boy delighted in the sudden change in stature. "Yeah...as usual, your selflessness shows through. ...'Ts sorta funny. You're almost entirely selfless, while I'm totally selfish..."

The young sentinel smiled faintly. "Yes; it's a wonder we get along..."

_December 27__th__, 648._

Tibarn was hovering a ways up in the sky, looking out at the approaching Begnion force. And laughing. "You've got to be kidding me! There can't be more than six thousand of them!"

"What?" Apostle Sanaki demanded from her place, riding in front of Tanith on the older woman's pegasus. "You cannot be serious!"

"No joke," Naesala said. (His wings had finally recovered enough to fly two days ago, much to his relief.) "Five or six thousand strong, at the most. That can't really be all they have..."

"Perhaps they left the majority of their army behind to defend the capital...or perhaps their soldiers have deserted." Sanaki said thoughtfully. "But either way, the senate must be insane to try and fight us with that force! Why do they not just surrender, and spare the men?"

"This will indeed be a slaughter," Tanith stated. "The best we can do for those men is take out their leaders as quickly as possible, and then perhaps they will surrender."

"Right...Speaking of which, Tibarn; am I imagining it, or are there actually four Begnion senators leading the army?" Naesala asked, squinting.

"You aren't imaging it. Strange that they would come out themselves, though—" Tibarn's eyes narrowed. "Wait a sec...! Naesala, is that third senator who I think it is!?"

The Raven king squinted a bit more, then his eyes narrowed as well. "I think so. That bulk is unmistakable. How is he still _alive!?_"

Tibarn cracked his knuckles. "However he survived, he won't be alive for much longer!"

"Aw, come on." Naesala grumbled. "You got to kill Izuka; I want this one!"

"You'll have to beat me to him, then!"

Sanaki was puzzled. "Who are you talking about?" she asked.

They were too busy arguing about who would kill 'him' first to answer, so Tanith replied instead; "This is just a guess, my lady, but I suspect they are talking about Duke Tanas. I may have forgotten to mention it, but I have received reports of him still being alive. He is the only senator I can think of who they would both hate like this..."

The Apostle's eyebrows raised. "...Well, that _would_ explain some things..." she muttered.

When the senate's tiny force clashed with the Apostle's army, it was as Tanith had predicted; a slaughter. Yet the smaller army did manage to hold out for a surprisingly long time, each man fighting to the last.

The senators egged on their troops relentlessly, yet seemed intent on not actually fighting themselves. But most of them would die eventually.

As one could predict, Oliver was the first to go. And Naesala was lucky enough to reach him first.

"King Kilvas!" the fat senator spluttered as the Raven landed casually near him.

"Hello, Duke Oliver." Naesala replied calmly. "It's been a while."

"W-what are you doing here, with this rabble!?"

"Why, these 'rabble' are my friends! And I never got to pay you back for what you did to Reyson..."

"What are you talking about?"

"Goodbye, senator. It's been no pleasure knowing you—though at least you paid me well for my sins." Naesala jumped in the air and Shifted.

Numida witnessed Oliver's death from a distance. "Why, that dirty sub-human!" he fumed. "How dare he go against us...! And why isn't King Hyrule doing a better job of controlling him!? Has he betrayed us!? Damned shadow brat...!"

Distracted in planning out the many ways he'd like to deal with the Raven king and his country, as well as Hyrule, he almost didn't notice when a green wyvern landed behind him. He started and spun around when it roared, finding himself meeting the eyes of a red-haired girl with a brave axe in hand.

He recognized her as a knight of Daein—one of the commanders of the 'liberation army' for that sham prince, Pelleas. "Knight of Daein, I am Duke Numida." he declared grandly. "Your ruler, King Pelleas, will—"

"You can stop right there!" she snapped, eyes narrowing. "Daein will never bow down to you again!"

"How dare you speak back to me!?" he snarled, reaching for his tome. "Insolent brat!"

She kicked the wyvern and they both shot into the air, startling Numida and sending several pages of the spellbook flying. He looked around for her, confused.

Then she swooped in at him and he went flying from the force of the axe blow. His eyes went wide and stayed that way as his head rolled away, a gruesome spectacle for anyone who was watching.

Jill landed again, breathing hard, blood dripping off the axe. Haar landed with a thump next to her. "You alright?" he asked.

She glanced at him, then back at Numida's headless body, and then finally at the axe. She laughed, then felt slightly sickened. "Should I not have done that?"

He grunted. "If you hadn't, I would've. Come on." He nudged his wyvern back into the air; Jill waited a moment before following suit.

Valtome, after having seen the deaths of his two fellow senators, was going slightly psychotic.

"They're both dead because of their own incompetence!" he shrieked, drawing startled and confused looks from the Begnion soldiers around him. "No! It's that Apostle's fault! No, wait! It's the fault of the sub-humans! Yes! Those mangy beasts will pay for their impudence!"

Decided in his path, he pulled out his tome and looked about wildly for any nearby laguz. He finally lay eyes on one—a peculiar purplish-brown patched Tiger-Cat-_thing._ "Aha! A mutant sub-human! Perfect!" he declared, storming forward.

It was just leaping back from finishing off a Begnion general when Valtome got within range. "Die, beast!" he shouted, then quickly shrieked the incantation from the book.

The laguz started as dark magic began to gather about it; it looked about for a way out, but it was almost impossible to see. Valtome started laughing;

"Uwee hee hee hee! Die, you stupid, insignificant fool of a sub-human! Die, die, die! Uwee hee hee!"

Then the tome was violently ripped out of his hands as a blue Cat leaped right past him, fangs closing around the pages and tearing it out of his grasp. The magic gathering around the other one flickered and went out.

Valtome shrieked and backed away. "Men! Men, to me! Kill those beasts!"

The Tiger-Cat snarled and stalked towards Valtome, bloodied fangs bared and dripping. The blue Cat shuddered, then in a rush of light Reverted, and stood tall. He glared at Valtome angrily. "You should know better than to go for _her_," he growled.

The senator shrieked again, but got cut off as the Tiger-Cat pounced.

Ranulf watched for a minute as Ducessa finished Valtome off, then took a swig from the flask of Olivi Grass on his hip and dashed back towards the battle. She Reverted, spat out a mouthful of blood, and commented to the corpse "If I'da known ya tasted that bad, I wouldn've bitten ya so hard," before running after her captain.

After the other senators met their untimely demises, Hetzel—on behalf of the army and the rest of the Senate—unconditionally surrendered to the Apostle. He was taken prisoner, and the enemy soldiers were given the option to either be taken captive or to join the Apostle's army for no pay for the first six months.

Most decided to follow the Apostle.

The captives were sent on ahead with an advance guard to Sienne; the guard would report the Apostle's victory to the people and deal with the last of the senate's resistance. The Apostle's army would follow shortly, after its wounded were recovered.

All in all; Apostle Sanaki was victorious. The only enemy force left on the continent was Hyrule.

There was just one other thing that had to be done first, however.

Hours before the last of the senate's army would be rounded up, or the advance guard with the captives sent ahead to Sienne, Prince Marth stepped into the tent where Apostle Sanaki and Senator Hetzel were discussing the terms of surrender. "Where is it?" he demanded flatly.

"What?" Hetzel asked, confused. At the same time, the Apostle asked "Prince Marth?"

"_Where_. _Is._ _It?"_ the Altean prince said again, very clearly, storming towards the senator.

Elice Caeda stepped inside, following him. "Marth...!"

"I-I don't know what you're t-talking about," Hetzel stuttered.

"You know _exactly_ what I'm talking about," Marth snapped, his right hand falling to the hilt of his sword. "Give it to me. Now. Before I kill you where you stand."

"Prince Marth, what is the meaning of this?" Apostle Sanaki demanded, as Elice Caeda scolded "Brother! Stop this at once!"

The senator stammered for only a few more moments before surrendering, pulling a scroll out of his robe and offering it shakily to the furious prince. Marth snatched it from him, opening it for a moment to check what it was. Then his fist clenched around it tightly, crumpling it in his hand.

"You destroyed a country with this," he informed the senator flatly, an undertone of menace creeping into his voice. "You ruined hundreds, _thousands_ of lives with this. You destroyed a good man's mind, murdered a kingdom's last symbol of hope and, right when they were finally starting to recover, sent them back into desolation—all with _this!"_ His other hand went to his sword hilt again.

"What is going on?!" the Apostle demanded again, confused. Elice Caeda lunged forward and grabbed Marth's arm, before he did anything stupid.

"Damn you and your precious senate!" Marth shouted at the cowering senator. "You destroyed a country, and for what?! _Nothing! _In the end it was all for _nothing!"_ Pulling his arm away from his sister, he ripped the paper in two. There was a flash of white light, and then two small, insignificant scraps of paper floated to the ground, bits of magic dissolving around them. Then he stamped on them, grinding them into the dirt until there was absolutely nothing left.

"Will someone _please_ tell me what is going on!?" Apostle Sanaki asked, exasperated.

Marth didn't answer her. "King Pelleas..." he muttered. "You're free now. Sorry it took so long..." Then he turned and left the tent, leaving Elice Caeda to explain what was going on.

Stefan was waiting outside, arms crossed. "You destroyed it?" he asked.

Marth nodded. The trueblade _hmmphed_. "Good. Let's hope that was the last one that will ever be made."

_December 28__th__, 648._

"So why're you still here?" Kaj asked flatly.

Levail set down his breastplate that he'd been cleaning and stretched. "I work in this army, you know."

"Not that, silly. Why didn't the Apostle send you with the advance guard? You would've been perfect for the job."

"I suppose she didn't think the same." The sentinel smiled faintly. "Not that I mind. I think I've had enough of fighting to last the rest of my life at this point."

"You'll still have to do a lot of it, though." Kaj stated. "Hyrule's still out there, and the Apostle won't willingly abandon Queen Elincia to it."

"Yes, I know." Levail sighed. "I guess I'll have a lot more to do for a while..."

"...You could leave." the dark-haired boy finally suggested.

"Hmm?" The sentinel glanced at him.

"You could leave. The army, I mean. Now." Kaj sat down next to Levail, sliding his hand into the other's. "We both could. You know I already want to... and with all the other commanders around, like Tanith, or Zelgius, or the laguz, it's not like we're necessarily _needed_ anymore."

"...But...I...I don't know..." Levail said softly. "Wouldn't that be a sort of...betrayal? To leave, now, right before we go to help Crimea...?"

"Oh, they won't care! Come on!" Kaj put his other hand on top of the first and twisted to face Levail better. "No one will mind! But if we stick around much longer, you or me might get hurt, or even killed!"

"And yet, if we leave, someone else might get killed that we could have helped, had we stayed..." the young sentinel murmured contemplatively.

"Levail..." Kaj sighed. "Would you do it for me?" He smiled ruefully. "After all, you're the selfless one, and I'm the selfish one..."

"That's not entirely true," Levail said gently. "After all... you want us both to leave so _neither_ of us will get hurt, while I want to stay just to keep my personal sense of honor..."

"That's not true...Please...?" Kaj asked again. "Please leave with me? _Please_ say yes this time?"

Levail was silent for a long time. Finally he replied; "I...I'll think about it. Okay?"

Kaj sighed again. "Alright...fine. I'll wait...but just for a bit longer."

"You've been trying to get me to leave with you for two months..." Levail said softly. "A few more days won't hurt."

_December 29__th__, 648._

The Apostle's army was camped a few hours march from the capital, not far from the battlefield of two days past. The senate's troops had already been dealt with, and Tanith had sent a messenger saying all was well in Sienne; in the morning, Apostle Sanaki planned to march south and reclaim her city.

She was in a better mood than she had been for a long time. She even whistled a little as she skimmed over reports. Her personal guards were happy to see their liege in a good mood, but none of them could avoid the slight shadow cast by the thought of Hyrule... and what Dark Link might do now, after his last ally had been destroyed.

It was quite late before Sanaki tossed aside the last report. She stood up wearily and yawned, then walked away from the table. She saw the slight pink-haired pegasus knight(a Crimean, in fact, the one who'd brought word of Elincia's defeat—her name was Florina), who had been standing guard at the door, had fallen asleep; the Apostle walked over and gently roused her.

Florina awoke in an instant, and quickly got to her feet. "My lady Apostle, I—I apologize for my negligence! It won't happen again...!"

"It's alright." Sanaki said with a tired smile. "Don't worry about it. Go to bed."

"I will be...fine..." Florina started dozing off on her feet; a moment later she unwillingly gave in and left.

Sanaki blew out her candle and was just about to go to bed herself when she heard a commotion outside. Frowning, she ducked out of her tent.

A pair of Begnion knights were riding through the middle of the camp, escorting a dark figure on a white horse. The rider swayed in the saddle, held on only by the rope securing him to it. An arrow stuck out of his left shoulder; one of the Begnion knights was similarly wounded. Some others had been awoken by the noise, and several were murmuring in surprise to themselves.

A moment later, Elena darted into view, just as the three riders got to the center and one dismounted. Tibarn was right behind her, looking as if he'd just woken up(which he probably had) and grumbling about it.

"Oh Goddess," Elena gasped, stumbling to a halt. "Soren!"

As Sanaki's eyes adjusted and she made out the third rider, she recognized him as well. "The Greil Mercenaries staff officer? What is he doing here?" she asked of no one in particular.

The dark-haired boy pulled a thin knife out of his sash and wearily began sawing at the damp rope that secured him to the horse. He winced, then dropped the knife as the rope finally snapped. With a weak little moan, he slid out of the saddle—right into Elena's arms.

"Soren!" she cried again. She couldn't carry his weight, and they both sank down to the ground as Sanaki began interrogating one of the knights that had brought him.

"We found him just a little way northwest of here, my lady." the knight reported. "He was under attack by a Hylian patrol..."

Soren had already fallen unconscious. Elena pulled him back from the horse—Titania's white stallion, she now realized—and fretted; _Oh, Soren...What could have happened?_ _What about the others?_

Then she gasped slightly, her fingers running through his ragged, unevenly hacked-off shoulder-length black-green locks. _Y-your hair...!_

* * *

_Ahh...Sadly enough, the most fun part to write of this chapter was Tibarn and Elena's arguments...  
(Ooh, more cliffhangers! *shot*)  
_

_~DarkieDucessa  
_


	22. XXI

_So...A week or two ago, I finally sucked it up and wrote the final battle. It took ages, but I did it. (I suck at writing battles...especially battle chapters ^^;)  
A few days after that, I finished it. Still need to edit it, but despite that, I'm feeling very proud of myself~  
So, because now I have less fear of catching up to myself and going on hiatus for weeks, I'm uploading the next chapter early!  
And also, this chapter basically takes place at the same time as the previous one. The dates at the beginning of chapters/paragraphs are VERY important! The story wouldn't make sense without them! (I should copyright the date thing...*shot*)  
Okay, it can make sense without them...kinda. Just know that this is going on at the same time as Tibarn and Elena arguing. :3  
_

_~DarkieDucessa**  
**_

* * *

**~Chapter Twenty-One**

_December 16__th__, 648. Ertz Mountains._

The red-haired paladin shivered as she led her borrowed white stallion up the snow-covered trail. The sky was overcast, and a hard wind stirred up the piled snow around her and blew her scarlet tresses across her face. She took cover behind a large boulder, wiping damp hair and specks of ice out of her eyes.

She glanced around, then shouted back to where she'd come. A moment later she saw a cloaked figure stumbling up the path she'd just climbed; leaving her horse behind, she hurried down to help him.

The small mage struggled up the last several meters, then collapsed beside the shielding boulder as the paladin took his pack from him. He pulled his hood off and sighed in frustration, running his fingers through his loose hair in a useless attempt to get the ice out.

"This is insane," Titania said darkly, slinging Soren's pack over her shoulder and readjusting her stallion's load. "Tramping through the mountains in the midst of December. We'll freeze to death before any Hylians find us."

"We have no choice, Titania." Soren said sternly, brushing snow off his cloak. "If we had stayed in Crimea, Dark Link would have surely found us; there was nowhere else to go."

"We could've gone to Gallia." the paladin suggested.

Soren shook his head. "Dark Link would not have hesitated to pursue us there; it is probably where he suspected we would go, anyway."

"Is trying to sneak through the mountains and praying an avalanche doesn't bury the trail any better?"

"As I said before; we have no choice." Soren got to his feet again, wincing as the wind hit him. "Come on; we have to go on."

Titania sighed and got up again, grabbing her horse's reins to steady herself. The stallion whinnied nervously, pacing in place; she patted his neck to steady him. Then she hurried forward to catch Soren just before he stumbled again. "You're not well, Soren." she chided. "Come over here."

The mage grumbled but didn't argue as Titania put him up on her horse, tying him to the saddle so he wouldn't fall. The horse barely noticed his weight; there wasn't much of it to begin with anyway, and not eating for so long had taken off any extra he might've had.

They heard a shout from up ahead; "Guys, hurry up! You're falling behind!"

Titania pulled her cloak closer, tightened her grip on the reins, and started up the hill again.

_That night_

The green-haired woman finally stopped her slow, weary trudge, collapsing to her knees, her breath painful and heavy. The red-haired boy fell down beside her quickly. "Elincia! Are you alright?"

She nodded weakly. "Just...so...tired..." she wheezed.

The blue-haired knight hurried back down the path to her, taking her hands gently in his and pulling her to her feet. "My lady, there's an empty cave not far ahead. Only a little further."

"I'll...be fine...Geoffrey..." she gasped, leaning on him heavily. "Just...need to...catch my breath..."

The two pegasus knights that had brought up the rear caught up to them. "Oh no... Collapsed again?" the pink-haired girl asked worriedly.

"I...can..." Elincia took a weak step forward, then stumbled again.

Geoffrey caught her, then easily picked her up. "She'll be alright. She just needs rest."

"We could all use some." The red-head sighed. "Not like we'll be getting much of it, though."

"Stop complaining, Roy." the green-haired pegasus knight scolded. "You should be glad we're even alive!"  
"I know, I know!" He sighed again, following slowly as Geoffrey started back up the path with Elincia. "I just wish that things could go well for us for a change..."

_December 17__th__, 648._

Boyd stumbled over a rock and collapsed to his knees, coughing painfully. As Titania had predicted, he'd gotten sick from all those days of sitting outside in the snow, and now the freezing air made his lungs and throat burn with every step.

Rolf glanced back, then dashed down to his brother. "Boyd, we're almost there!" he said urgently. "Just a bit further...!"

"You...go on ahead..." Boyd wheezed. "I'll...be there...in a minute..."

Rolf glanced back up the trail nervously, then returned his gaze to his older brother. "No, I'll stay with you." he said firmly. "Come on, now! Up you go!"

Boyd groaned as Rolf struggled to pull him to his feet. He staggered wearily, leaning heavily on his little brother, who nearly collapsed under the weight.

Then another pair of arms supported Boyd, picking him up easily, as if he were no more weight than a child. Rolf staggered as the weight left him, then looked up at Zelgius and nodded his thanks.

"I'll bring him up. Make sure Rhys is all right—he's starting to slip." the general said flatly; then he started forward again, Boyd half-unconscious in his arms.

Rolf sighed slightly, shivered, and walked down the trail again. He found Rhys a little further down, staggering through a thick snow drift, and supported him up the hill.

When they got to the camp up ahead, he left Rhys with Mia and went to find Boyd. The man was huddled next to the fire, coughing. Ike sat across from him, staring at the center of the fire blankly.

Rolf knelt beside his brother, wrapping his arms around him carefully. He glanced over at Ike. "How much longer will we be in these mountains?" he asked.

Ike shrugged very slightly. "I don't know. Perhaps another week..."

"Do you really think we can make it that long?" Rolf asked, very seriously.

Ike didn't reply.

_December 18__th__, 648._

"How's it look from up there?" Roy shouted, shading his eyes from the sun with one hand as he looked up the scraggly, wind-blown tree.

Sharon, balancing precariously on one of the upper branches, shouted back; "Can't see much; the sun on the snow is pretty blinding!"

Elincia sighed faintly. "So in other words, we have no sense of direction at all?" she asked.

"I think maybe if I ran over that way, that cloud might block the sun a bit..." Marcia said, frowning and contemplating another tree further off. "I'm not really sure, though..."

"Go ahead and try!" Sharon called down. "Better than anything I can make out from up here!"

As the pegasus knight slid down the tree again, Marcia climbed out of the hole in the snowdrift that she'd sunk into and half-ran, half-crawled through the three-foot-high snow, towards the other tree.

Elincia sighed again. "Maybe we really should've gone to Gallia..."

"Dark Link was probably expecting that." Geoffrey replied. "And with Riven Bridge destroyed, this was the only way we could go."

"I know... I'm just...tired..."

Marcia got to the tree and climbed quickly, reaching the top at about the same time Sharon climbed down and her feet hit the ground. The green-haired pegasus knight landed off-balance and staggered for a moment, but Roy caught her. "Thanks," she mumbled.

"No problem, sweetheart." he replied casually. Then ducked to avoid her half-hearted punch.

Marcia shaded her eyes and looked around carefully. "Let's see... I think I can make out Mugill from here...!" she called. "And...let's see...Yeah, we're pretty close to the path. Shouldn't be much of a problem to get back to it!"

"Can you see any signs of bad weather?" Sharon called.

"No—wait." She frowned, then shouted "There's a big low cloud, not far from here! We might get some fog, maybe more snow too!" She began to climb down the tree.

"Just fog...?" Geoffrey thought for a moment. "I could've sworn I saw a blizzard coming this way."

"Maybe it missed us," Roy suggested.

"Yes, that must be it...A good thing too; there's hardly any cover up here. Hopefully it'll blow over somewhere else, and we'll have good weather for the rest of the travel."

_December 19__th__, 648._

There was a blizzard raging through the mountain pass. It had caught the Greil Mercenaries unawares; they'd barely managed to stumble into a cave before it became a total whiteout. Now they huddled inside the cave. It was too wet to build a fire, and the snow was piling up both outside and inside. All of them were freezing and miserable.

Ike leaned against one of the walls, wrapped up in his cape. Any part of his skin that was exposed was numb with cold, and everything that wasn't exposed was still frozen to the bone.

He glanced up as Zelgius sat down next to him, wrapped in the black and red cape of the Black Knight; the only thing he had, since he'd been forced to leave his other armor and cape behind when he went to rescue Ike. "S-s-sort of g-g-glad now t-t-that we d-d-didn't b-bring E-E-Elena." Ike commented, his teeth chattering.

Zelgius scooted closer and opened one side of the cape, letting Ike in; the blue-eyed mercenary gratefully accepted, huddling close to his husband, both wrapped in the larger cape. "I do admit that I doubt she would've done very well in these conditions," Zelgius replied, slightly amused.

"I wonder what the weather's like where she is," Ike murmured. "I wonder if it's sunny and warm there..."

"...This sort of reminds me of that one time in Daein..." Zelgius said softly. "Near Sella. Remember?"

Ike laughed. "Oh, yeah...I convinced you to come along on a scouting mission and you ended up getting us lost for two days...!"

Zelgius smiled faintly. "As I recall, _you_ were the one with the map, love."

"Meh...hah..." Ike smiled as well. "That was around the time you first started calling me 'love', wasn't it...?"

"Yes, love."

"Ah...Those two days..." Ike said quietly, leaning against his husband's shoulder. "That time we spent together... I think that was when I first fell in love with you, you know?"

"I remember that...in fact you, half delirious with the fever you were coming down with, almost kissed me in front of Mist when she found us. And then her."

"Really?"

"Yes. She gave you funny looks for a week straight after that."

"Oh, yes...Hah...ah...those were...the days..." Ike trailed off. A few moments later, Zelgius realized that the younger man had fallen asleep. He smiled and pulled him closer, snuggling for warmth.

Not far from them, Deirdre, who had no cape for use as a blanket, rubbed her bare arms and shivered. She was exhausted and could barely keep her eyes open, but the cold was keeping her awake. _I guess this outfit works for summer campaigns, _she thought ruefully, _but it really isn't much use in winter._

"Cold?"

She started at the sudden voice, then glanced up; she made out her mentor's face through blurry vision and smiled faintly. "What do you think? It's freezing!"

Shinon laughed. "I figured as much."

Looking at him, her bleary eyes registered that he was wrapped in a blanket. "Where'd you get that?" she asked.

"Grabbed it from the base before we left. Figured we might need it." He paused for a moment, then held out an arm. "Come on."

She rushed up next to him, sighing blissfully as he wrapped the blanket around them both. "Thank you, Shinon." she murmured.

He smiled. "At least you finally stopped calling me 'sensei' or whatever..."

She wrapped her arms around him tightly and closed her eyes. She was barely visible as she was, pressed up against Shinon under the blanket. Her weary mind slowly faded into dreamland, and she dozed sleepily, unable to register what was around her.

Shinon smiled faintly and patted her head, smoothing out her tangled hair a bit. Then he carefully sat down against the wall, letting her slide into his lap. She mumbled something sleepily and drew her legs up closer to her, then fell asleep.

Ike woke up sometime in the middle of the night. It was too dark to see anything, and he wondered vaguely what had woken him.

Then he heard a bit of scuffling, and then a weak cough he recognized as Soren's. Then another, and then a soft little question; "I-Ike...?"

The mercenary commander slowly got up, careful not to wake Zelgius, and followed the sound of Soren's coughing. A moment later, he found the mage curled up in a corner of the cave. There seemed to be some sort of hole or something in the cave wall, letting in a little of the moonlight outside and allowing the pair to see each other.

Ike knelt down beside the boy to meet his eyes. "Are you alright?"

Soren shook his head barely and coughed again. "I'm...afraid...not..."

Ike put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"...I...I think I'm..." More coughing. "I think I'm going to die..."

The blue-haired commander started. "Wha—? What are you talking about?" he demanded quietly.

"I'm going to die, Ike." Soren whispered urgently, turning to face him. His face was pale and drawn, his eyes sunken from too little sleep. "Everything is so cold...hard to breathe...dark...I don't think...I'm going to...even...get out of these...mountains."

"Soren, a cold is not going to kill you." Ike replied firmly. "Go back to sleep. Did you have a nightmare or something?"

"No...I haven't slept...since I last woke up...at the mercenary fort." Soren said faintly. "Ike...don't ignore me...on this. I..._know_...that I will die...and...I need to...ask you...something..."

Ike saw that Soren wasn't going to listen to reason at the moment, so he decided to play along. "...Fine. What?"

"...I want you...to cut my hair."

It took the commander a long moment to register that before demanding, "What?"

"Cut my hair."

"But... for Ashera's sake, what for!?"

"Elena...she'll get stressed...without it..." He glanced aside, pulling one of his ratty and damp pigtails in front of him. "Just cut these off...hopefully...they'll be enough...then she won't need me...she can...go on...without..."

Ike sighed deeply. "Oh, Soren...really, you can be a bit slow sometimes..."

"Hmm?" Soren glanced back up, puzzled.

"For all your smarts and know-how and whatever, you couldn't figure it out?" Ike laughed quietly. "Soren, it's _you_ that relieves her stress."

The dark-haired boy's expression didn't change. "What...are you talking about?"

"Come on, don't tell me you never noticed!" Ike laughed quietly. "She always feels better when she's with you! And not just because of your hair. I mean, she does like your hair, but that's only part of it. And it'd be kinda freaky for her to play with a dead guy's hair, but then, you're not dead, but maybe it would still help... Oh, what am I saying? Look—it's _not_ _the_ _hair_. She wouldn't even care if you cut it all off!"

"...But...she always said it was my hair that...helped."

"Hah...she just said that the one time, didn't she? Man, you get fixated on the strangest things sometimes." Ike gathered his thoughts for a moment before explaining; "She...she smiles easier when she's with you, y'know...you make her happy. That's all there is, really." He stood up. "So, if you're really worried about her...none of this talk about dying. Just stay alive, so she will smile again."

Soren was silent for a long moment. Then he said; "I...I do feel a little better now..."

"Good boy. Now get some sleep, okay? You need the rest, if that was all you've been thinking about the past week." Then Ike quietly left.

Soren sat there for a while longer, still thinking.

_…__...Me? What...what does she see in me that could possibly make her happy...?_

_December 20__th__, 648_

When Boyd woke up, after finally drifting off sometime late the night before, the cave was pitch-dark. He sat up, then coughed as he inhaled the snow that had built up on him while he slept. His head hurt, and he couldn't recall where he was for a moment; then he remembered, and called weakly; "Rolf..?"

He heard a bit of a rustling, and then felt a cold hand on his right shoulder. "You there, Boyd?" his little brother asked.

"Yeah..." Boyd coughed. "Is it pitch-dark in here, or is that just me?"

"It's not just you. The entrance got completely snowed in by that blizzard." Rolf said ominously. "We're trapped, sure enough."

"Aw, geez..." Boyd's coughing turned into a brief bout of hacking; then he sighed and got to his feet, steadying himself against the wall. Rolf's hand slipped off; then returned as the smaller boy stood up as well.

"You should just rest, Boyd." Rolf said quickly. "It's dark anyway, and you're sick—"

"Gotta...try to find...the entrance." Boyd said decisively. "Someone's gotta...dig us out of here."

"Boyd, the snow's so piled up no one can even _find_ the entrance—" Rolf was cut off by a shriek and a rumble, and then light poured in through a hole in the snow piled up over what Boyd assumed was the entrance. He blinked several times until his eyes adjusted and the light wasn't blinding; then he frowned slightly at what had made the hole.

The red-haired boy at the bottom of the hole stood up quickly, brushing himself off. A girl's laughing could be heard coming from the other side of the snowbank. "Stop it!" the boy said, annoyed.

"S-s-sorry-y! Hahahha!" The girl's laughing gently slowed. "Oh, that was funny. Ahhaha..."

"Are you alright, Roy?" a different girl's voice called.

At the same time, Ike(who was sitting against a nearby wall next to Zelgius) stood up in surprise. "What—Roy? Marcia?"

Then a third woman's voice called down from the hole; "Huh—wait—was that Ike? Hello!?"

Roy looked around in confusion and surprise; he met the eyes of the eleven surprised mercenaries—and then he smirked slightly and shouted back up the hole; "M'lady Elincia, I believe I've found the Greil Mercenaries."

It was about an hour later before the mercenaries and Elincia's party, working from opposite sides, managed to dig the mercenaries and their equipment out. The sunlight was blinding, and Ike had to cover his eyes briefly when he got out to let his eyes adjust.

"Where did you guys come from?" Rolf asked, a bit confused.

"I could ask you the same thing, little guy." Marcia replied.

"I told you not to call me that!"

"Yeah, anyway..."

"How did you escape from Melior?" Elincia asked. "I—I heard Ike—Dark Link was—"

"General Zelgius rescued him." Soren said flatly.

"But... Dark Link defeated you before..." Geoffrey said thoughtfully. "How did you get him out...?"

"...I had some help...from a friend." Zelgius said vaguely. "That's all."

Elincia laughed suddenly, hugging Ike. "Oh, I'm so glad you're alive! When I heard you being tortured—I thought you would be—"

"All part of the job," Ike said, faintly cheerful.

"What job?" She stepped back again. "Wasn't your job to command the Apostle's army?"

"We came back to rescue you!"

"...Oh...You didn't have to do that..." she said quietly.

Marcia paused, slightly worried. "What is it?" Roy asked her.

"This—this isn't all of you," she said, frowning. She counted them quietly; "Ike, Zelgius, Soren, Titania, Boyd, Rolf, Rhys, Mia, Shinon, Gatrie, Deirdre—three of you aren't here."

"Well, Elena stayed behind with the Apostle." Ike explained. "We thought this mission was too dangerous for her."

"Oh." Marcia brightened slightly. "So Oscar and Mist are with her, then?"

Ike paused, then glanced aside, slightly guiltily. "...Not exactly..."

She could tell he was hiding something. "What? What is it?"

"Well...Mist...she..."

"She left the mercenaries," Soren informed Marcia bluntly. "She couldn't handle it any longer and she left."

"Soren, that's..." Boyd trailed off as the tactician shot him a stern look. _I guess she wouldn't fully understand the truth, anyway..._

"...And...Oscar...?" the girl asked weakly.

Not even Soren would reply to her about that. She looked at the others nervously, but none of the mercenaries would meet her gaze. "What happened to Oscar...?" she asked again. "Is he...somewhere else...?"

Boyd was the one who finally spoke; "He's dead, Marcia. I—there was an archer—I couldn't—I'm so sorry..."

But she hadn't heard a word after the second. Her mind was spinning wildly and suddenly nothing seemed to make sense anymore.

Dead? Oscar...he couldn't be dead. He was...he was like a brother to her. The kind of brother she'd always wanted. Someone she loved, who looked out for her, who didn't gamble and need her to pay off his debts. He'd always been looking out for her. He'd always been _there_ for her. Always...

He said he wouldn't leave her alone. He _promised._

"He..." she said weakly. "He...can't...be gone...!" The world was spinning now. The world was spinning and couldn't be righted for her again.

How could any world be right that let good people like Oscar die...?

Her vision got blurry and she realized there were tears on her cheeks—and then she lost it entirely, and broke down into sobs.

_December 21__st__, 648._

The skies were clouded over in Daein. The gray, lifeless weather seemed to almost represent the ominous shadow cast by Begnion and the other countries over the frozen kingdom.

One of said shadows was walking out of the castle in Nevassa, grumbling under his breath. His dragon stood up as he approached; the girl besides it hurried forward to meet him. "Did you find anything out?" she asked.

The shadow shook his head wearily. "The young king has gone mad with guilt and grief; his mother is not much better. We shan't get any help here..."

"What now, then?" the girl asked, walking with him back to the dragon.

"I will simply have to search this country myself." He grasped one of the dragon's scales and swung himself up on its back, settling in between the wings as he had done thousands of times before. He offered his hand to the girl. "It will take time, but I don't have much choice."

She took it and let him swing her up onto the dragon behind him, quickly rearranging herself more comfortably as the animal stood on the shadow's command. "What if he's already gone on to Begnion? He may have joined the Apostle's army." she suggested.

"If he has, then I will hunt him down after I claim Courage in nine days." The shadow gave the dragon a silent command and it hoisted itself into the air, wings beating hard until it gained a decent height. "But Wisdom has proven to be a coward so far. He is no doubt hiding under some rock in this Goddess-forsaken country; I shall merely have to smoke him out."

"...I think he's braver than you give him credit for." the girl said warily.

"Hah! We shall see." The dragon flapped once more, then sent itself forward, leaving the gloomy capital of the desolate country behind.

_December 24__th__, 648._

The group finally emerged out of the mountain pass a week before Ike's planned confrontation. The path spilled out into the snow-covered forest, just north of the fortress of Telgam.

Elincia sighed in relief as she climbed down the last small cliff-face, landing lightly beside Ike and facing the forest. "We're out of the mountains. Finally we can walk on some flat ground for a change..."

"Not used to all this walking, your Majesty?" Ike asked casually.

"Well...not really, no." she admitted, laughing slightly. "I didn't do quite this much of it before... though I'm not sure if slogging through three-foot-high snow counts as 'walking'."

"If you two lovebirds are done talking," Roy said, leaning over the ledge Elincia had just descended, "could one of you move? You're kinda blocking the way down."

"Oh! Sorry," Elincia said quickly, moving out of the way.

"Could you not call us that?" Ike said as the red-head jumped down. "It's sort of annoying, and besides..."

"You don't want Zelgy's feelings to get hurt, right?" Roy smirked.

"Um, no... I just don't think you'd like getting murdered in your sleep." Ike replied, entirely serious.

Roy's grin faded slightly. "Uh...right...he wouldn't _really_ go that far, would he...?"

This time it was Ike's turn to smirk. "No, but _I_ certainly would. Prince or no prince."

There was a lengthy pause as the two faced down, each measuring the other. Until Sharon finally dropped down from the ledge behind them and punched Roy in the shoulder, causing him to jump. "What the—Hey! I told you not to do that, woman!" the red-head said indignantly.

"And I've told you not to call me 'woman', man." she replied flatly.

Roy pouted; Ike and Elincia laughed. "I'm going ahead to check the trail. Wait here for the others," Ike told the young queen; then he ran ahead.

Elincia sighed. "Yes; here I am, waiting behind for the others...It almost feels like it's the Mad King's War again..."

"Yeah, well, let's hope this war ends as well as that one did," Sharon said.

_December 25__th__, 648._

The girl glanced up from the book she was reading as the door to the throne room of Crimea slammed open, and the Shadow of Hyrule stormed in. He was covered in snow and some mud; Shard followed on his heels, equally dirtied. "Do I have to ask how it went...?" the girl asked cautiously.

"Damn that Wisdom." Dark Link fumed, stomping up to his desk and sitting down. His frustration was evident in his voice. "I searched for him all from Talrega to Palmeni; nothing! Not even a trace!"

"Well, maybe he really did go on with the Apostle's army," the girl suggested.

"It would appear so." The Shadow then fell silent, quietly steaming. Shard retreated to his corner and lay down, closing his eyes but not actually sleeping, as per his and his master's custom. The girl wondered if it was part of the Triforce of Power, that they never needed sleep, but she didn't ask.

Since Shard was "sleeping" and Dark Link obviously didn't want to be disturbed, she decided to stay quiet for awhile. She tried to go back to the book—a confusing volume Dark Link had given her about gods in Hyrule, with his rough translation written in between the lines—but after a few minutes she put it down again.

Her thoughts went to Dark Link. A mysterious boy, to be sure. For one thing, he had mentioned searching Hyrule for the Triforce for fifteen years... and he had spoken of his previous master, who had taken over Hyrule four years before that. That was nineteen years of his life, not to mention however long he'd lived before then—somewhere around sixteen or seventeen years, perhaps, as far as she could tell. That would make him at least thirty-seven years old. He certainly didn't look it.

Another thing was the confusing relation Dark Link seemed to have between a mysterious "hero" of times past, a princess, and his old master. Those three had been the former holders of the Triforce, she knew. His old master, Ganondorf, had held the Triforce of Power, which Dark Link now carried—how had he gotten it from him? The "hero" Link had carried the Triforce of Courage, which was now in the possession of Ike—how had _he_ gotten it? What had happened to Link, and what was his relation with Dark Link? Were they friends, perhaps? Brothers?

And then there was the princess, the previous holder of the Triforce of Wisdom. The girl knew little of her; Dark Link rarely mentioned her, and never her name. When he did bring her up, he passed over her like a breeze, never lingering or giving the slightest hint of detail. Why? What had happened to her, that her Triforce went to the prince of Altea? What was her relation to the mysterious dark boy?

Dark Link was, she realized, much like this book she held—confusing, foreign, devoted to the power of gods she didn't know. And she was trying to wade through the translation, rough and written between the lines, so she could finally understand him.

And if she _was_ going to understand him, she couldn't put the book down after just a few minutes. So she picked it up and started reading where she'd left off.

_December 26__th__, 648._

"We're just about three days from Soze Pass now," Ike said contemplatively, studying the not-so-distant mountains around Graan Desert. "We might even have a day off to rest."

Soren sighed wearily. "Good...I think we're all going to need it."

Ike glanced down at the small mage. "Um...Could I ask you something, actually?"

"Yes..."

"...Why did you think you were going to die?" he asked bluntly.

Soren paused. "Well...I guess I was just...so tired and miserable, you know? No sleep...been sick since we got back to the fort...and...well..." He sighed deeply. "I was there...when you fought Dark Link. And...I couldn't...be of any help. I was so...useless...I mean...what's the point of my going on if I can't help you...?"

Ike sighed. "Soren...you do help me. You really do! That one time, well...Dark Link was just too powerful. I mean, he defeated me too. There wasn't anything you could have done."

"But that's the problem! What good is it to try and help people, when...when they need it the most...I am helpless?"

"...Well...that's the thing, isn't it." Ike's voice lowered. "The problem. Sometimes, your best just isn't enough, and when that happens..."

"...I...I swore my life for yours." Soren said quietly. "But when you needed me, I couldn't do anything. I thought I might as well die..."

"...So what made you change your mind?" Ike asked.

"...It's for Elena." The dark-haired boy smiled faintly. "I...don't want her...to stop smiling. If what you said is true...then...I want her...to keep that happiness. To keep laughing...and smiling... If I cannot help you, then...this is next best, right?"

Ike paused for a long moment. "...Right." he finally said. "Right. That is next best...so long as you keep Elena happy, I'll be happy..."

Soren noticed the change in tone and his smile disappeared. "...You think you're going to die, too...don't you?"

The commander didn't reply. "You think you're going to go up there...in the pass...and you'll fight Dark Link and lose again." Soren said, horrified realization in his voice. "...Why? Why would you do that?"

Ike waited a long moment before answering. "...I don't really have much choice, right?"

"What do you mean...?"

"...I don't want to run." Ike said firmly. "Prince Marth didn't want to lose his life, or the lives of the others around him, so he tried to escape. I don't blame him for that. I would probably have done the same, if I'd seen the same horrors that he has. But...he tried that, and it didn't help. So...this is the only option I have left. To stand and fight."

"But...you lost before." Soren said quietly. "You nearly died. What good would it do any of us...for you to fight and lose again?"

Ike sighed deeply. "...If I fight him...and I lose...then I will most likely die." he agreed quietly. "But if I run, he will only end up hurting the rest of you to try and get me back. I...I don't want any of you to be hurt like Shinon was. Like...like I was."

"But...Ike...!" Soren protested weakly. "If you die...if you die, don't you know what that will do to the rest of us!? Zelgius and Elena would both give their lives trying to get revenge...and likely many of the mercenaries would as well!"

The commander remained silent. "Ike..." the dark-haired boy said quietly. "If you die...you will be hurting us more than Dark Link ever could. Don't you understand that? …...Physical wounds can heal, Ike. Your death...would leave such a painful scar...that it would probably kill us. Zelgius...Elena..._me_...would probably die from the pain. Is that really what you want?"

"...No." Ike replied quietly. "No, I don't want that." He blinked and realized a few tears had formed around his eyes; he quickly wiped them aside and put on a brave smile. "But anyway, why are you such a pessimist? We don't _know_ that I'm going to lose!" He patted Soren lightly on the shoulder. "So cheer up! Everything will be alright."

Ike then started walking down the hill. Soren watched him go... knowing that he was watching the back of a man resigned to die for his friends.

Later that day, when Ike had called camp for the night, Sharon set down her pack and leaned wearily against a tree. "Whoo! Never thought I'd have to do so much walking all at once..."

Roy laughed and dropped his pack next to hers. "Hah! Easy for you to say, sweetheart. What do you think it's like for all us horseless types?"

"Exhausting!"

They both laughed. "Ahh..." Sharon slid down to the ground and sighed. "I wish Bree was here...poor girl..."

"Ah, she should be fine." Roy sat down beside her. "She's probably out with Marcia and Elincia's pegasi, having the time of her life. You shouldn't worry so much."

"You're right...still..." She sighed again. "...You know something?"

"What?"

"Well, I...despite how I act, as if I know everything, I never actually fought in the Mad King's War."

He frowned, surprised. "...Really?"

"Yeah; I joined the Crimean Knights just after it ended. I _was_ only fifteen when it started, but still...I always felt kinda guilty about that, y'know?" She leaned back against the tree and stared up at the sky, where a few stars were already starting to become visible in the dimming light. "I thought I'd been avoiding it on purpose until the war was over and it was possible I wouldn't ever have to actually _do_ anything. I mean... it's not like I _don't_ want to ever help anyone, but...ah...I don't know." She sighed again. "I really don't know anything. I'm just a stupid kid with a pegasus who got caught up in a war she doesn't even understand."

"Sharon..." Roy put an arm around her shoulder. "Don't say that! You aren't dumb. And you aren't a kid. You've done your fair share of fighting in this war, and before it—you can't say you've been shirking! If anyone's been shirking, it's me! I wasn't there to help Elincia when Dark Link..." He trailed off, glancing down at his feet sadly. "...when Dark Link took her home from her..."

"Roy, there wasn't anything you could have done." Sharon said quietly. "Even if you had been there, you probably wouldn't have been much help..."

"Well, there!" he said firmly, looking back up at her. "You aren't a kid now, but back during the Mad King's War, you _were_ still young, and you didn't even have much training. So if you had joined that war, well...you might not be here now. With me. Okay?"

"...Ah...thank you, Roy." She smiled ruefully, glancing down at her feet. "It seems that, once again, you know exactly what to say...Me, I never know what to say. I just spout off whatever comes to the top of my head and hope I don't offend anyone too badly..."

"Hey, that's not true!" Roy said encouragingly. He reached over and gently took her chin, turning her to face him again. "Even if it's the first thing that comes to mind, you _always_ know what to say to me to make me happy. That's enough, isn't it?"

She reached up and pulled his hand off her chin, laughing softly. "Anything I say seems to make _you_ happy, silly!"

"Well, yeah." He smiled. "Your voice... that's all I need to hear."

She resisted the urge to giggle. "Oh, please. Do you spout that silly romance novel stuff to every girl you date?"

He blinked. "Well...yeah." They both laughed, and he snuggled slightly closer to her. "But it's never been more true than when I say it now."

She felt her resolve weakening. "You probably say that, too..."

"...No. No, actually, I don't." he murmured. "Because saying it before would've been a lie...but here, it's the honest, unshakable truth."

"...Roy..." she said under her breath.

"Sharon..." he replied, equal volume.

They gazed into each other's eyes deeply. Then Roy leaned in, eyes half-closing. Sharon blinked once, then gave in, closed her eyes as well and moved slightly closer to meet him.

Roy was very gentle when he kissed her. So she returned the courtesy when she kissed back.

When they pulled away, her smile was very soft. "...You know...My mom told me that 'Sharon' means 'princess' in the old language." she said quietly.

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer to him. "Yeah...And when Dark Link's defeated, and this war comes to an end, I will make you _my_ princess, princess." he replied.

Her smile widened and she leaned up to kiss him again.

_A girl stood atop a snowy peak, watching the stars that sprinkled the night sky. Back in Crimea, the clouds would still be blocking out the sun; but here, up in the mountains, the clouds were far below, and the night was clear and bright._

_King Hyrule was taking a rare moment of peace, resting after his long and fruitless search through Daein. Shard was doing the same; she was all alone, and she welcomed that solitude, for it seemed as if it had been years since she had gotten to be by herself._

_When it had only been two weeks... yet, with the Shadow keeping such close tabs on her whereabouts, her feelings were understandable._

_The snow was cold on her bare legs, but she ignored it; leaning against a boulder, she let her head fall back. Starlight twinkled in her vision, then blurred as she let her eyes unfocus._

_Where are you now, brother...? she wondered. Are you safe with "him"? Are the rest of you safe? I wonder if you've gotten to Soze already...or are you still in the mountains?_

_She sighed. She wondered if any of them were looking up at this sky, these stars..._

_Are you alright, too...? she thought. My...dear friend?_

_The one I never had the courage to love...?_

There was another, watching the same stars that the girl did, and with thoughts of almost the same thing. _Are you alright...?_ he wondered. _Did you find somewhere safe? Or did you get captured? I hope you'll come home soon..._

The girl. The girl he wished he'd gone after, that day. Chased down, dragged back, prayed to stay behind and not leave them...or him.

_Please come home soon. So I can tell you..._

"Brother?" the green-haired boy asked, glancing over at his thinking, half-dozing older brother. "You alright? You've been awfully quiet... You should go rest, back at the camp."

Boyd sighed and sat up. "Alright, fine...G'dnight, Rolf."

"'Night, Boyd."

_Goodnight, Mist...wherever you are._

_December 28__th__, 648._

"What will you do now?" the girl asked softly.

Dark Link, standing on the snowy mountain peak and looking out at Daein, laughed faintly. "I do not know. What _can_ I do? There is nowhere else in Daein to look...Courage will be waiting for me in two days at Soze Pass..."

"I still believe that Prince Marth is with the Apostle's army." the girl said firmly.

"Well...then perhaps I shall see him, if the Apostle decides to head for Soze." Dark Link said contemplatively. "Mopping up the remnants of the Senate's forces should not take her much longer..."

"...The senators really were fools, weren't they?" The girl sighed wearily, shaking her head. "Marching out to attack the Apostle head-on with a minimal force..."

"Yes, foolish in the extreme..." Dark Link murmured.

The girl eyed him suspiciously. "...For some reason, I'm getting the feeling that you put them up to it." she said.

He laughed. "Oh? Well, I will not deny that I did not try to _stop_ them from going through with it. I hate those vile men as much as anyone...the world is better off without them."

The girl laughed with him. "Yeah...Still, did their attack have _any_ strategical importance?"

"It is doubtful..."

_December 29__th__, 648._

It was the day before Ike would hopefully face Dark Link at Soze Pass. The Greil Mercenaries and Elincia's party were camped out at the base of the pass, and enjoying a much-needed rest before the final battle of the following day.

At least, that's what it _seemed_ like. What with all the "buildup" as Roy called it, Ike's upcoming fight with Dark Link really did seem as if it would be the end—the battle to end all battles, the end of the war, the decider of the world's fate...

"And with all that being said," Sharon remarked, "you really should cut it out. Are you _trying_ to drive the general crazy with pressure?"

"Meh. The more pressure he has, the harder he'll try!" Roy insisted.

"That makes no sense!"

"So? _I'm_ not the one in question here!"

"Uh, guys, I really don't mind..." Ike said, but he kind of trailed off when they went on arguing and payed no attention to him whatsoever. He sighed and glanced over at Zelgius. "I suppose he is right, in one respect. Tomorrow's battle really will be a 'final stand'..."

Zelgius wrapped an arm around Ike's waist and pulled him close. "Make sure it's Dark Link's final battle, and not yours, love..." he murmured.

Ike nodded. "Of course...I'll do my best."

"Ike..." Zelgius paused for only a moment. "I still do not understand. What is the point of this? What is the point of fighting when we have no chance of winning?"

The smiled faintly. "I have a little chance, Zelgius. I...don't know if I mentioned it, but..when I fought Dark Link in Melior, I managed to land a blow on him with Ragnell. And it stuck."

Zelgius stepped back a pace to see him better. "What do you mean..?"

"It didn't heal automatically...So, I do have a chance now, because I believe this sword can harm him."

"But Ike, love... you could only land one blow on him before." Zelgius said. "Even if you can wound him, how will you defeat him...?"

Ike sighed deeply and looked aside. "...That's the problem, Zelgius...he cheats."

Elincia looked up at the patchy gray clouds overhead, lit a brilliant red by the sun, which was just barely dipping under the horizon. It was one of the most beautiful sunsets she'd ever seen, and she was fixated on it—that last vestige of beauty, before all of it might be destroyed...

"My lady." She heard Geoffrey's voice, his footsteps as he walked up behind her. "It looks like it might rain soon. We should rejoin the others at base."

She laughed slightly. "Oh, Geoffrey, Geoffrey..." she murmured. "I told you you could call me just 'Elincia'..."

"...that would be improper, my lady."

"Oh, who cares!" She laughed again, but some of the humor had fallen out of her voice. "We could all be dead tomorrow; who cares about propriety, or formality, or any of it..."

He sat down beside her. "Are we not all hoping that we won't die?" he asked. "That Dark Link will be defeated, and life will go on as normal?"

"Yes..."

"Then we should stick with propriety, so that we don't say anything we would regret later, if we win. My lady."

She smiled. "Ah...As you wish, I suppose. But..." She turned to look at him. "Well...Can I ask you something?"

"Of course, my lady."

"If Ike wins the battle tomorrow...Dark Link is defeated, and everything goes back to normal..." She paused. "Will you call me 'Elincia' then? Will you stay with me, love me still as you do now? Marry me, even, and be my king?"

He turned slightly red. "...I-if it is what my queen w-wishes..." he mumbled.

She moved a bit closer to him and reached one hand up to stroke his hair softly. "That's not the right answer, Geoffrey." she said sternly. "Now...Think about it, about yourself, us, whether you think you are prepared for this or not...and tell me..." Another brief pause. "Will you marry me?"

He looked deep into her eyes. Then smiled.

"Even if what you asked...was not already in my heart...I could never deny you, Elincia."

The beautiful sunset paled in comparison to her radiant smile.

"...twelve, thirteen, fourteen...fifteen! Fifteen arrows," Deirdre clarified, setting down her quiver. "It's all I have left."

"I have eighteen." Shinon replied. "Not much..."

"Will it be enough?" she asked worriedly.

"Probably, since it's just supposed to be a one-on-one with Ike and Dark Link anyway...but then again..." He pulled a few arrows out of his quiver and held them out to Deirdre. "Here."

"What?" She blinked. "But they're you're arrows, I don't—"

"Hey." He cut her off. "Take 'em. I'm a better shot anyway, so I don't need as many."

She acknowledged the point and accepted them, sliding them into her quiver. "These still won't last long if there's any kind of lengthy battle..." she muttered.

"...Sorry."

"Hmm?" Deirdre glanced back up at him. "No, don't be; it's not your fault we don't have enough arrows..."

"Not that!" Her mentor sighed. "I'm sorry for putting you down like that. I'm a no better shot than you, anyway."

"W-what!? No!" she said quickly. "You're still m-much better than I am, I-I'm sure!"

"Deirdre..."

"Y-yes, you're much better, I d-don't know w-why you w-would say that..!" She turned back to the quiver and started pulling arrows out, but in her frazzled state she couldn't remember how many he'd given her, so she just grabbed a handful and offered them to him. "B-but if you w-want your arrows back, h-here, take them—"

"Deirdre!" He pushed her hand back. "Keep the arrows!"

"N-no, really, I can get some from Rolf—" She stuck some of the arrows back in the quiver, but the wrong way around; she started pulling random ones out and turning them around, which only added to her confusion.

He started laughing, which made it worse. "W-why are you laughing!? Ah! W-was it something I said? D-did I do something w-wrong!?"

"No, just—hah!" He stopped laughing, but he was still smiling. "I've never seen you like this before. Is this some clumsy, confused side that you never show anybody?"

"Er, um, well...eh..." She trailed off and looked down at the arrows, realizing what a mess she'd made out of things. "...Oh. I really have been...hah..." Then she started laughing. "I'm making a mess! What am I doing!? Ahahah...!"

Then Shinon started laughing again too, and they were both laughing, and neither seemed to know how or when to stop—but neither of them had laughed in a long time, and it was fun. Fun had been a thing of the past for a while as well...

Rolf, walking by the tent, paused in confusion and listened for a moment. "What the heck...?" he mumbled, before he kept walking.

His brother was, as usual, sitting by himself just out of the camp. He was staring up at the sky, and the gray rainclouds that had rolled in. "Boyd?" he asked.

The other boy didn't look. "Rolf." he replied.

"The food's almost ready. Are you coming back?"

"I will, in a bit..."

Rolf sighed. "Boyd...Why are you always out here, by yourself?"

His brother didn't answer for a long moment. Then he said; "Do you ever think about her?"

"Who?"

"Mist. Do you think she's alright?"

The younger boy didn't know what to say. "...well...I don't know," he finally said. "I...I guess I really did sort of...forget about her. What with going through the mountains, and worrying about Hyrule, and all the rest of that..."

"I didn't. I didn't forget." Boyd sighed. "She's out there...somewhere. Fighting for survival in the wilderness, maybe...or maybe she's found someone to stay with...or she could be dead, even. And there's no way for us to know...That's the worst part. Not knowing, just guessing..." He sighed again. "...If...if only I'd said something...gone after her..._anything_...Goddess, I'm just a mess of bad decisions lately..."

Rolf paused for a long moment. "...Come on, Boyd." he eventually said. "It's going to rain soon. We should go back."

"You go ahead, I'll...I'll stay out here for awhile."

Rolf looked at his brother for one last, lingering moment, then turned and walked back to the camp.

A few minutes later, the rain started. Boyd stared up at the sky, letting the rain pour over his face and wash the tears from his eyes.

Titania had climbed the pass ahead of time to get a look around. When she returned, she bore ill news.

"The Army of Hyrule is marching down from the north." she reported.

"Damn," Ike swore. "I was hoping they'd take a little longer to catch up..."

"Any sign of the Apostle's army?" Zelgius asked.

She shook her head. "I can see a few distant fires to the southeast, but other than that, nothing."

"How far? Could someone get to them by tonight?" Elincia asked.

Ike turned to her. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well... I thought maybe if one of us could get to the Apostle, they could tell her where we are. And if the Apostle's army can get here in time, then they can engage Dark Link's army." she explained.

"That might work," Titania said contemplatively. "By horseback would be the fastest, though, and I'm the only one with one... Should I go?"

"I would rather have you here with us... But there isn't much other choice." Ike said. "You go, and tell them where we are, and the situation."

Titania nodded. "Yes, commander."

"Wait."

The four of them turned to where the voice had come from. Soren stood there. "I'll go."

"...Soren?" Ike asked, slightly confused.

"I know how to ride. If I take Titania's horse, I can make it in the same time as her." the boy said firmly.

"But you're unwell...!" Elincia said. "You shouldn't be riding..."

"As Ike said, Titania might be needed here tomorrow." Soren reasoned. "But...as you pointed out...I am unwell, and won't be much use to anyone here. So, logically...I should go."

"...I don't want to risk you getting hurt." Ike said tentatively. "Hyrule might have long-distance scouts. If you were attacked..."

"It is a risk I am willing to take, and a far less risk than sending Titania and having me remain behind as a liability." Soren said bluntly.

Ike paused for a moment, then turned to the others. "What do you think?"

"He makes some good points," Zelgius said thoughtfully. "Still, as you said, he would not be able to defend himself very well if he were attacked."

"Yes, but...I think he makes sense." Elincia said. "And the chances of him getting attacked aren't very great...it's probably more likely he'll encounter scouts of the Apostle's army than Hyrule."

Ike thought about it, then turned back to Soren. "Alright. If you really think you'll be well enough to make it, then go. So long as Titania agrees to lend you her horse, that is."

"Of course!" Titania said quickly. "I'll make do on foot. You'd better hurry, though."

Soren nodded, then turned and left the tent, stepping into the rain.

Unknown to anyone other than himself, Soren had something else in mind when he asked to be sent as the messenger. He knew that alerting the Apostle to their presence was extremely important, and he would make sure to do that—but he also wanted to try something else. Something about...

Titania's horse was very familiar with him by this point, and didn't put up a fuss as he untied its reins from the tree and led it out. Mounting it was a bit trickier, since Soren was a good deal shorter than the red-haired paladin and definitely too small for her horse, but he managed. He knew he was already tired, so he made sure to tie himself to the saddle securely. Rain pelted the ground at the stallion's feet, melting snow into icy water and fast-turning the hard-packed dirt beneath to mud.

Titania caught up to him. "You forgot this." She handed him his pack, which, as he had well memorized, carried a few rations, a well-worn Elwind tome, a Thunder tome with only a few pages left, and a Fire tome that was practically brand-new. He nodded his thanks, then nudged the stallion's sides, urging it to a walk. A moment later, he kicked a bit harder, and after a few minutes, settled into a smooth canter towards the southeast.

Relaxing the reins for a moment, Soren pulled out the thin knife he'd been concealing in his sleeve. His wet, ragged bangs hung in his face, reflecting off the mirror-like blade of the knife, and he gazed into his own eyes. He looked at that blade for a long moment, contemplating. Then deciding.

He slowed the stallion to a stop at the top of a hill, glancing around to verify his surroundings and direction. Rain plastered his hair in his eyes, and soaked the rope binding him to the saddle; he could already feel it start to tighten, and winced. The white horse whinnied, eager to go on.

"Just a moment, boy," the dark-haired mage said quietly. Then he held up the knife and reached behind his head.

A few moments later, he urged the stallion into a canter from a half-walk and sped off, mud and melting snow flying out in their wake to settle over the pair of bedraggled, unevenly hacked-off pigtails.

The fortress of Mugill was much different in the winter than other months. When the girl recalled her last visit here—her part was mainly disguise, slipping the guards drugged food so the other mercenaries could get in and open the gate for the Laguz Alliance—she remembered it as being warm, sunny, cheery even after the battle. Now it was cold, colder than the icicles forming under the windows—almost as cold as Dark Link's hand.

She ran a hand along an open windowsill, brushing the snow off, barely feeling the temperature. Her fingers lazily traced designs in the frost underneath, drawing a triangle, a sword, writing a name that she hadn't heard spoken in two weeks.

Dark Link watched her carefully, curiously. He was becoming fascinated by this girl—this warm, happy creature that he had brought into his castle and just could not freeze. Not the darkness, the cold, even the Shadow himself seemed to be able to change her.

But she was, he realized, changing. Just starting to become like him. In perhaps a few years, if she continued on this path, she would be almost _exactly_ like him. Cold, dark... and soon, forgotten. Like he had been...before...

_It...it has been a long time...since you thought of her,_ the voice said sadly. _I thought perhaps you had forgotten._

"I do not forget." Dark Link said quietly. "Only cast the memories aside...until I need retrieve them."

_Don't they hurt, these memories?_

Dark Link closed his eyes. "...Yes...Yes, they do." he whispered. "They burn fiercer than Din's Fire, but I welcome that heat. It helps to...shut out the cold."

_…__..And she awakens those memories, does she not? She melts the ice that you have built around them... She is alike _her_in many ways..._

"No..." Dark Link opened his eyes, and his mouth twitched into a faint smile. "She is different..."

The girl's hand slid gracefully off the windowsill as she turned to look at Dark Link. "Did you say something?" she asked.

The Shadow straightened and stepped forward to join her. "No...just...speaking to _him_ again."

"Ah." She turned to look out the window, resting her elbows on the sill. "It's...cold here. Colder than I had thought it would be."

"Heh." Dark Link's smile widened slightly. "Obviously you have never wintered in the mountains."

"...And yet...it's not as cold as you." She turned her head to view him again. "Why? Why do you remain so frozen, all the time?"

"Do you think I wish to remain frozen?" he asked, with a slight chuckle.

She was silent for a long moment. "...Yes." she finally said. "It...You're hurt...something still hurts you. And you numb yourself to it with...ice. Cold. Frost. Snow. What...hurts you?" Her arm lowered and her hand touched his gently. "How can I melt that ice, heal your pain...?"

His head lowered; he regarded the floor, and her hand gently touching his, blankly. "...My heart will be warm when the Triforce is mine." he finally said, the emotion drained from his voice. "When it is mine, I can recover the one that I lost...and when she returns to me, I will be whole and warm again."

Her hand ran up his arm to gently tip his chin up, and she met his eyes squarely. "Tell me. I want to help you." she said. "Anything."

He reached up with his left hand to take hers, gripping it tightly. The red triangle glowed slightly brighter. "Anything...?"

"Yes."

"Hah!" He glanced aside. "Can you stand toe-to-toe with General Zelgius while I rip the Triforce from his dying lover's grasp? Can you command an army? I think not."

"Then how?" she demanded. "How can I get stronger? There must be a way—some way—_anything!_"

He turned to meet her eyes sadly."...Then...you are truly set on this?"

She paused for a long moment—then it was her turn to cast her gaze aside. "Well, I—I want to help, but... I..." She sighed. "I can feel your pain, Dark Link. I _know_ you—and I want to know what hurts you, too. I want to warm your heart again—I want to feel it start to _beat_ again—I want you to _live._" She looked up at him again, her eyes now filled with pain. "But it hurts...too much. I...I couldn't hurt my brother. My friends. I know...I can't go back to them, I can never go back, not now, after what I did...and yet, I cannot go against them. But...I cannot go against you, either."

"...Is that...all there is?" Dark Link finally asked, quietly. "You wish to remain...neutral?"

"That doesn't seem to be an option in this war," she replied, a faint bit of humor in her voice, casting her eyes down. "But...if there was a choice, then yes...I would be neutral. But that is not...how it is." She met his eyes once again, sadly. "For better or worse, I have cast my lot in with you. So...help me. So that I can help you."

The red eyes narrowed. Then closed.

_So we come along to plan B at last..._ the voice mused as Dark Link began to draw his focus upon the Triforce. The voice, his yet _not_ his, faded in his consciousness even as he did so; _I only hope you find it worth the pain..._

And the pain did come then, and it was excruciating—to both him and the girl. But he did not cry out, and neither did she; or if he did, he could not hear it.

In his mind, the red triangle floated in inky blackness. He could see the jagged slice in the side where he had taken a shard out...and now, his mind turning a mental force sharper than any knife blade, he slashed off a part of the corner and felt his heart burning. Distantly he thought he heard the girl cry out; and then there was his voice, but _not_ his voice, crying out as well; and he took both the voices and the new shard and brought them into each other...and _squeezed._

And his mind snapped back, and she fell.

His chest and hand burning, his vision filtered with red, he regarded the girl on the ground and said, with the forces of the Triforce of Power still reverberating through him and his voice; _"__Can you hear me...Mist?"_

The girl blinked, slightly confused, and nodded.

_"__And...can you hear me..."_ He summoned the last of his strength for this final lock. _"__Link!"_

Then Mist cried out again, and blood-red light blazed from her eyes, and Dark Link felt the Triforce burning him up—he was melting, he would be swallowed—

And then it all stopped. And the girl stood, and her blank red eyes met Dark Link's.

_"__It feels good to have a body again."_ she said—but her voice was not _hers._

* * *

_Ooh, the suspense! Mwahahaahahahahaahahaha! *shot*  
Ah, poor Soren...thinks he's gonna die...  
Little reference to Marcia and Rolf's support conversations in PoR(I think)...Poor Marcia...I feel so guilty for killing Oscar...*sigh*  
I'm very proud of that not-so-subtle metaphor with the book and Dark Link~  
Was Roy and Sharon too sudden? ^^; I kinda have the tendency to come up with these pairings and write them into the story without any background to them...  
...I think I wrote Geoffrey as a bit of an idiot. Or something. :I "I'd marry you even if I didn't want to?" Really, Geoffrey! I'm ashamed of you! (Of course, it's my fault for writing him that way...^^;)  
Well, hope you enjoy! R&R, seeya in (hopefully less than) a week! c:  
_

_~DarkieDucessa  
_


	23. XXII

_The end is near.  
_

_~DarkieDucessa_**  
**

* * *

**~Chapter Twenty-Two**

_December 30th, 648._

Fifteen people stood ready at the base of the Soze Pass. Mountains stood above them, casting the party in a looming shadow. The marching of thousands of feet could faintly be heard, blown down to them by the wind—the sound of the army of Hyrule, on the move towards them.

Ike looked up the path, fixing his gaze on a mountain not much further along. He recognized this place; he had been here less than four months ago, fighting with the Laguz Alliance. That mountain was the place where Skirmir had lost his duel; this was the place where their advance had halted.

Now, standing here, he thought he could see a dark shape standing on the peak, waiting for him. A dark shape of a dragon.

"He's here," Zelgius stated ominously. He was carrying the blade Alondite and wore the armor of the Black Knight, save for the helmet, which had been left behind.

"So it would seem." Ike replied darkly, his grip tightening on Ragnell.

"Hyrule's army isn't far from here, either." Elincia said quietly. "I only hope Soren managed to tell the Apostle in time for them to make it."

"Even if they don't, this will end today..." Ike murmured. "I will go up there. One of us will walk away; one will not. Either way, I am ready." He glanced back at the rest of the mercenaries—the Greil Mercenaries, his faithful soldiers, followers, friends... They had given up the past, for him. They had gone through hell, for him. They had seen friends, family, die...for him.

Now it was his turn to die for them.

"Move out!" he called, and started up the road to his fate.

Dark Link stood at the top of the mountain, his right hand resting lightly on Shard's neck. The dragon's gaze was on the same thing as his master's; the distant specks below of their opponent, and the black ranks of Hyrule.

"_To be honest, I didn't really expect them to come here."_ the person beside Dark Link said quietly. _"I thought he was giving you false direction, so he could escape."_

"He knows what happened to the Altean prince when he fled," Dark Link replied smoothly. "He undoubtedly believed that the same would happen to Tellius if he tried to flee. So he's going to fight me instead...a sort of last sacrifice."

_"Huh. Sorta like me, I suppose."_

"He does bear your old Force," the Shadow said evenly.

_ "Yeah, but I was hoping that would make him _smarter,_ not as stupid as my shadow here—"_ The person was cut off by a sharp gasp of pain as Dark Link clenched his left hand tightly, making the mark flash. _"Huh. So this is what it's like for Shard all the time—"_

"Be silent." the Shadow said darkly. "I'm getting sick of hearing your voice."

_"My voice, or hers—gah!"_ The mark flashed again and the person surrendered with a small laugh. _"Very well..."_

_You will get your chance later, anyway,_ Dark Link thought. Then, silently delighting in the fact that he could think to himself now without having that annoying voice listening in on everything, he gave Shard a silent command. The dragon obediently leapt off the cliff, flying for the distant army. He would relay Dark Link's orders; the battle would soon begin.

The army of Hyrule had caught up to the Greil Mercenaries. They were surrounded on all sides at the foot of the mountain where Dark Link waited, and were hard-pressed to fend off all the troops. Ike and Zelgius alone could take out hundreds of Hylian soldiers by themselves, but the enemy just kept coming and coming.

Ike cut down another pair of bulblins, his blade whistling as he cut through the cold mountain air. Several archers fired down at him; one arrow slammed into his right shoulder, cutting deep. Gritting his teeth, he drew power into Ragnell and fired a bolt of magic up at the archers; all six of them went flying with squeals as the magic sliced right through them. Then he heard a familiar magical sound and quickly stepped back, just before a stream of light magic flowed down to explode in the midst of a group of lizalfos; they yowled in pain and fell back, and another group took their place, advancing on Ike.

Rhys flipped through the remnants of his Shine tome worriedly, then said "I'm almost out of pages, Commander!"

The mercenary commander sent another bolt of magic slicing out at the lizalfos and hurriedly replied "Be careful about how you use them, then!"

"Boss, everyone's weapons are wearing down too fast!" Mia shouted, breaking off for a moment from the moblin she'd been fighting. "At this rate, we won't last another hour!"

"Dammit!" Ike kicked away a scorpion and cut down another lizalfos. "There isn't anything we can do about it! Just...if all your weapons break, get behind me or Zelgius or Elincia. We'll try to last as long as we can!"

Rolf stumbled back from his place behind Geoffrey, gasping in pain as he pulled a long splinter of a spear out of his arm. "This is so...pointless!" he shouted. "Why would he try to kill us when he wants Ike alive!?"

The words stung Ike, though it was unlikely that that was what the boy had intended. _It's not my fault,_ he thought. _It's not, it's...I...he was supposed to go for _me! _He's supposed to kill _me,_ not them! This isn't right...!_

He barely snapped out of his thoughts in time to block a downward blow from a heavily armored knight. Gritting his teeth, he shoved the heavy black blade back; then, with all the strength he could muster, he slammed Ragnell into the knight's side. The golden blade bit deep, searing through steel, and then suddenly he felt a jerk as it snapped free and the knight went flying.

But it had taken a lot of strength for that blow, and when he saw a second knight approaching him, he could barely lift his sword to block its overhead swing. The black blade bore down on him, and he found that he couldn't shove this one off him. Rhys and Mia had disappeared; he supported Ragnell with his free hand, but his strength was almost drained...

Then, suddenly, there was a draconic screech and the knight slumped to the ground, sword sliding limply off of Ragnell. Ike blinked in surprise as he saw the axe wound in its back—then blinked again when the heavily armored black wyvern landed in front of him with a resounding crash, sending a variety of Hylian troops scattering.

"That's four you owe me now, kid." Haar said, spinning his silver poleax back to a ready position, ignoring the startled Hylians all around him.

"Haar...?" Ike asked in surprise. Then, as he heard another screech and saw a green wyvern dive into a mass of bulblins; "And—and Jill? Where did you—"

Then there was a familiar piercing cry, and Ike looked up and saw a wave of hawk laguz streak across the sky overhead, clashing with the flying lizard-soldiers of Hyrule; and when Ike looked past the cliff edge he was next to he saw ranks of red soldiers charging the black ranks of Dark Link's army.

"The Apostle's army," Titania breathed in relief. "Soren made it...!"

"Here." Haar untied a sack from the back of his saddle and tossed it at Ike's feet. It made a loud clatter as it landed. "The Apostle told me to give this to you guys. Hope it helps." Then he kicked his wyvern's sides and the beast roared as it shot into the air, its claws raking through a squad of bulblins as it ascended.

Ike slashed the bag open and various weapons, tomes, and healing items spilled out. He grabbed an elixir and took a quick swig before stuffing it in his pocket and advancing on the Hylian troops still scattered before him. He felt the potion's effects coursing through him, and his energy seemed to return all at once. With a yell, he charged.

The Apostle's army may have been greatly outnumbered by Hyrule, but their soldiers were generally better trained, and it wasn't long before the two armies were clashed together. From miles around, the sound of combat still echoed through the snow-covered hills.

A green-haired rogue stood on one such hill, looking out at the mountains. A wolf stood at his side.

"He'll be there," the rogue said quietly, and the wolf growled menacingly. "Soon this will all be over."

Then they both started running down the hill.

Marcia knocked down another bulblin and stumbled back against the cliff wall, breathing hard. Despite the arrival of the Apostle's army, they hadn't quite caught up to her and Queen Elincia yet. For that matter, Geoffrey and Sharon and Roy had been with them originally, but they seemed to have somehow disappeared, and now she and her Queen were alone. Other than the attacking Hylians, that is.

She gasped and ducked, narrowly avoiding an arrow in her ear, and hefted her javelin, hurling it at the archer. She struck it hard enough to send it flipping backward; she took the brief break to take a quick drink out of her vulnerary. She waited a moment until the gash on her leg closed over, then dashed up the short path.

Elincia shoved a bulblin off the path, sending it falling to its death far below, and swung Amiti around to kill another one. She backed away from the edge a bit and bumped into Marcia; she nearly swung, but relaxed. "You alright?" she demanded.

"I was just about to ask the same of you, your Majesty," Marcia replied, switching to a steel sword just in time to slash an oncoming lizalfos. "Did you see what happened to the others?"

"No, somehow the Hylians came on and we just—" She was cut off by a gasp as she ducked back, narrowly dodging a slew of arrows shot up from below— "got separated."

"Yeah, well, I hope we find them again soon—" Marcia stabbed a bulblin, then kicked its body back into its companions.

Elincia backed up a bit, then nearly stepped off the ledge and scrambled to catch herself. She breathed heavily and stepped back a little further, Marcia covering her with a javelin.

"I hope Geoffrey's alright," the young queen said. "And Ike and the others—"

She cut herself off again, this time with a little shriek as she slipped on a loose stone and fell off the edge. She tumbled down a foot before she managed to grab part of the ledge, her fingertips scraping and bleeding on the rock; Amiti flew from her grasp, falling down the cliff.

"Your Majesty!" Marcia tried to go to help her, but was caught up fighting a mob of bulblins.

Elincia's bloodied fingertips began to slip. Her right hand came off altogether and it hurt too much to try and grab on again. She tried to get some footing, but her feet kicked in thin air. _Oh Goddess,_ she thought, panicked, _I'm going to fall, I'm going to fall—_

Then, just as her left hand slipped, another hand grasped her wrist, and with one strong pull she was hoisted back up onto the ledge. Her eyes were fixed on the solid ground at her feet, and her breath was coming in short gasps—then she gasped again, more shocked, when she recognized a mark on the hand that had grabbed her, a mark crossed over with scars.

She looked up into the face of her rescuer. "Marth?" she asked incredulously.

The Altean prince drew his silver sword. "Let's go," he said. "The Crimean knights are just up ahead."

Leanne and Reyson were warily flying over the battlefield, under the escort of Janaff and Ulki, looking for anyone who might need help. Rafiel was down on the ground somewhere, under the protection of Queen Nailah; he'd insisted that they fly to assist others, and not worry about him. The fighting had been going on for hours, and Leanne was starting to get hoarse from all the galdrar she'd been singing. She wondered if Reyson were the same; if he was, he never mentioned it.

"Did either of you see where Tibarn and Naesala went?" the elder Heron asked.

"I think Tibarn's looking after Ike's daughter, somewhere," Janaff replied. "Didn't see the Raven, though." Then; "Gah!" He narrowly dodged an arrow, and quickly dove at the offending archer.

Reyson looked around and caught a glimpse of the Crimean Knight Commander. _Queen Elincia is here?_ he wondered. He didn't have much time to ponder it, though; he saw that Geoffrey was tiring, and quickly flew down to his aid. Ulki was nearly taken by surprise, but flew after him in a second.

Leanne considered following, but then decided that her brother could handle it himself. She knew she was supposed to be helping and singing galdrar, but at the moment her throat was sore and she decided to be selfish for a bit and take a break. She flew around aimlessly for a little while, watching the battle. Wondering if she should try singing again sometime...

Then she heard someone shout "Look out!" A moment later there was a whistling sound, and then a sharp pain ran through her left wing. She gasped slightly, looked at the black arrow, and then suddenly realized she was falling. She shrieked and tried to flap to regain herself, but when she tried to move her left wing pain rushed through her.

"Leanne!" someone shouted, but she was too distracted by the whirling grays and browns of the cliff that was rushing towards her to pay much attention.

Then, at the last second, she felt strong arms wrap around her waist and found herself being pulled upward. Naesala's injured wings only managed to clear the fifteen feet to the cliff top before giving out, and the two of them crashed to the ground. He still managed to get under her and cushion her fall.

As the dust settled, Leanne pushed herself up onto her knees and looked down at Naesala. His eyes blinked open after a moment, and he smiled faintly. "Sorry about that," he said. "I tried to block the arrow for you, but...wasn't fast enough."

She blinked—then laughed and pulled him up so she could hug him. "(Thank you,)" she cried, her voice still weak from too much use. "(You've done enough for me already. Thank you.)"

He smiled and hugged her back, then got to his feet, pulling her up with him. He glanced at her wing and frowned. "That doesn't look good. I should get you to a healer."

She looked over at his wings and replied; "(Your wounds opened up again, though. You can't fly on those now!)"

"Well..." He looked around. The cliff they'd landed on was a good deal up from the pass and cut off from the rest. "I don't know how we're going to get back, then..."

Leanne released him and walked over to the edge, looking down. Then she stepped back and replied; "(I guess we'd better wait for someone to come find us...)"

Marth, Elincia, and Marcia finally got around the pathway to be confronted by the last of the Crimean Royal Knights in service. "Queen Elincia!" Kieran cried, hurrying to meet them as several other knights went down the path they'd come up. "Are you alright, my lady!?"

"I'm fine, Sir Kieran," she assured him, ignoring the pain in her bloodied fingertips. "Have you seen—"

"My lady!" She heard the familiar voice and quickly stepped past Kieran, running to Geoffrey who'd spoken. Marth watched her carefully, and Marcia could've sworn she heard him sigh.

Then Kieran saw her. "Marcia...!" he said in surprise; then relief broke out on his face and he pulled her into a hug. "Oh, thank the Goddess! I'm so glad you're alright!"

She smiled weakly, but seeing him made her think of another, and she realized she had tears in her eyes.

He noticed as he stepped back. "W-what's wrong?" he asked quickly. "Why are you crying?"

"I-it's n-nothing," she mumbled. "I'm..fine."

"Did I say something to upset you? Oh, wait!" He grabbed her shoulders. "I know! My archrival must've said something to offend you! Probably about me! Oh, he is going to get it for running off without telling me first..." He trailed off when he saw her brave expression weaken. "...What's wrong...?" he asked again.

"Oscar..." she said weakly.

"Aha! I knew it! What did he do? Did he hurt you!?"

She mumbled something so faintly he wasn't sure he'd heard it right. And if he had, he couldn't believe it to be true. "W-what...?" he asked. "My...archrival...?"

"Oscar's _gone!_" she wailed, and broke into sobs.

He started violently. "What!? No! He—he can't be dead!"

As usual, his only solution to this extreme emotion was to replace it with something a bit more familiar; anger. "That d-dirty traitor! He went on and left without me! How dare he! And how dare he go on and leave you behind to weep for him! The nerve of that man!"

Unfortunately, this approach just made her cry harder. And now he really didn't know what to do—after all, he'd never really been confronted by a sobbing woman he cared for so much before, and the anger technique hadn't worked...

He tried the only other thing that came to mind and hugged her again. That seemed to help.

He then noticed the salty taste in his mouth, and the wetness on his cheeks. That was disturbing. Only _girls_ were supposed to cry; brave Crimean Royal Knights weren't supposed to cry, _ever,_ especially in the middle of a battle...

_ Oh, whatever._ He let himself cry too.

Marth glanced back at them once, then walked over to Elincia. "Have you seen General Ike?" he asked.

"He—he was planning on fighting Dark Link." she replied.

The Altean prince cursed. "That—! Where is he?"

She turned and pointed further up the pass, towards the peak where the dark dragon shape could still be seen. "He was going up there for the fight."

Marth nodded his thanks, then started for the mountain.

Further below, a platoon of Begnion paladins was leading the way up the pass. Bringing up the rear were their commanders, Wishblade and dagger in hand.

Levail was steadfast as he marched, his spear spinning easily in his hands as he had done so many times before. All the Hylian soldiers that attacked him fell quickly to the Wishblade.

And, as usual, Kaj brought up the rear, finishing off those lucky enough to escape his commander's first blows.

The paladins ahead of them swept through the pass in a wide arc, clearing out many of the defenders and allowing the footsoldiers behind them to get through. Levail climbed up on a cliff ledge, cutting down the archers there, and looked back at the warring forces.

Kaj scrambled up the cliffside beside him. "Hyrule's troops in the pass are starting to fall back," he reported, "but there are many more that have yet to attack. This won't be quite as easy as it looks."

"Let's just hope that General Ike and General Zelgius can defeat King Hyrule before all our forces are destroyed, then." Levail replied, before throwing the Wishblade down at a dark-clad knight below him. It struck in the opening in the armor, killing the knight instantly; a moment later, the magical spear reappeared in Levail's hand.

Kaj stepped around the sentinel and found a narrow path that led up around. "Come on!" he said quickly. "We can cut around here and rejoin the troops on the other side."

Levail nodded and followed the boy onto the path. A moment later, though, he heard a thump and a dangerous growl, and when he glanced back, a wolf stood on the ledge where he'd just been, fangs bared.

Ike had finally reached the foot of the mountain. He could see the dark form of the Shadow's dragon flying overhead, going to rejoin its master at the peak.

The army of Hyrule had been divided by the attack of the Apostle's army; and now the only troops in his way were the guards and archers on the ledges ahead, ready to fire down at a signal.

Zelgius ripped several scorpions off his armor and threw them aside, stepping forward to join Ike. "There are not many ahead, but they all have the high ground." he stated.

Ike nodded agreement. "It won't be easy to get up there." Tightening his grip on Ragnell, he added; "But we have no choi—"

He was cut off by a yowl, and then a draconic screech; a moment later the Shadow's dragon swooped down on a platoon of Begnion soldiers, flame pouring out of its mouth. The soldiers ran for cover; many of them were wounded or killed, along with many of the Hylian troops they had been fighting. Then it turned, and its gaze seemed to latch onto the two mercenaries; it began to fly towards them.

"Damn it," Ike swore, "and we can't—"

Then there was a mighty draconic roar; and another dragon, blinding with the sun reflecting off its pure white scales, swept straight into the black-red dragon, claws digging into its wings. The Shadow's dragon screeched and tore itself away from the newcomer; but the white one was fast, and wheeled back onto its opponent. A great wave of white magic poured out of its mouth; the Shadow's dragon barely dodged in time, and replied with its own wave of flame, but the white one seemed unaffected. It dove back onto the black-red dragon, biting at its neck; the other one screeched again and tore around, rending its claws into its opponent. Red appeared on the white scales and the dragon roared.

Ike stared up at the battle, fascinated. "I didn't know that White dragon laguz could fly..."

"They can't." He looked down again, startled, at the voice.

A teen boy with pale-red hair stood before him. He held a narrow wooden flute in one hand; it was the white streak of hair by his left eye that made him stand out. "At least, not as far as I know. But Mother can."

Ike didn't understand, but Zelgius did. "Is that—Princess Tiki that's up there?" he asked.

The boy nodded. "Yup. She heard about Hyrule's army marching down here and wanted to come help." He raised the flute to his lips and played a few quick notes; Ike suddenly felt a rush of energy, similar to that energy the galdrar of the Herons gave him. "Hurry, now. That dragon was going to come for you, but Mother's distracting it. Go!"

Ike nodded a quick thanks, then turned and ran up the familiar path towards the summit. Zelgius followed right behind; the screams and roars of the fighting dragons echoed overhead.

Kaj heard the growl and his hand went instinctively to the knife at his belt as he turned, looking past the sentinel at the new threat. The wolf growled, stalking forward menacingly.

Levail's grip on the Wishblade tightened. "Where did that come from?" he muttered.

"I dunno, but it's in a bad mood." the dark-haired boy replied. Then he heard a sharp whistling sound and ducked; a silver knife bounced off the stone his head was in front of moments before. There was a quiet curse, and then a green-haired rogue dropped into the path to face him, a dagger already in hand.

Kaj spun back around. "You...!"

"Get out of my way," Sothe said flatly. The wolf barked once, as if in agreement.

"Why should I?" the dark-haired boy replied with equal menace.

"Move, or I'll kill you too." the other rogue snarled.

"I'd like to see you try—"

Levail cut him off; "What do you want?"

"I want you _dead,_ you murderer!" Sothe shouted, as if suddenly enraged by the sentinel's voice. "You murdered my Micaiah and now, by the Goddess, I _will_ avenge her death!"

Not giving them the chance to reply, he shot forward suddenly, dagger flashing, and Kaj barely managed to knock the blade aside. At the same time, the wolf leapt for Levail, and he had just long enough to raise the Wishblade to block him. Both rogue and beast fell back for a moment, then the wolf made another lunge.

Levail slashed wide with the Wishblade and cut a gash into the wolf's front; it kept coming on, its fangs burying into the sentinel's arm. He gritted his teeth against the pain and slashed at the wolf with Wishblade again, and it tore back again, ripping a sizable gash in Levail's arm.

Sothe tried to duck around Kaj to get at the sentinel, but the dark-haired boy was an excellent defender, easily matching each of the other rogue's moves with his own. Frustrated, Sothe pulled a knife out and threw it past Kaj; it bounced off one of Levail's shoulder guards as the sentinel whipped around to dodge another one of the wolf's lunges. Another slash of the Wishblade into the wolf's leg sent it reeling backwards.

Seeing the green-haired rogue was open after throwing the knife, Kaj darted in, carving a deep gash into Sothe's front, deep enough to kill. The rogue gasped, blood spattering the ground, and Kaj smiled grimly in triumph—but then Sothe suddenly raised his own dagger again and darted at Levail, for Kaj, in his dash, had left his friend open.

"No, dammit!" the dark-haired boy shouted, realizing his mistake and spinning on his heels. "Levail, look ou—"

The sentinel barely heard the first word of the warning cry before he was turning, knocking the green-haired rogue's right arm aside with Wishblade and sending the silver dagger flying.

But the boy had two daggers, and as the right arm was cast aside he got up close and sank his left-hand dagger through a gap in Levail's armor, sinking into his side and grazing his heart.

Levail choked. Sothe grinned. "Got...you..." he said, before crumpling to the ground. The sentinel pulled his hand away from his side and stared, confused by all the blood on his hand.

"No!" Kaj shouted, rushing towards him.

That was when the wolf, already limping from its earlier wound, made its final attack. With a growl, it leapt forward, crashing into Levail's legs. Both of them stumbled on the narrow cliff ledge; the sentinel grabbed at the rock, but the wolf had latched onto his leg and was dragging him down; Kaj lunged for his friend but wasn't quite fast enough—and they both tumbled off the cliff.

Kaj screamed. "NO!" He ran to the ledge, tried to grab for them, but they were already gone. He looked over and saw the two bodies lying unmoving far below. _"LEVAIL!"_

Sothe was sobbing with either pain or relief. "Oh, Goddess...I did it...I...did...it..." he moaned, his agonized voice straining at triumph.

Kaj grabbed the other boy's arm and dragged him to his feet, ignoring the cry of pain that accompanied it. "Damn you!" he shouted. "DAMMIT! _Why would you—"_

He stopped talking when he realized the green-haired rogue was already too far gone to hear him.

But the boy was still faintly moaning one word, over and over, even as his strength left him;

"...Mi...cai...ah..."

The mountain summit wasn't much further ahead. As Ike sent another beam up at an archer before climbing the cliff, he recalled that he was almost to the place where they'd fought Callum, the Begnion commander serving under Levail. So much had happened since then, it seemed as if that battle had happened years ago...

He finally pulled himself up onto the top, overlooking the ledge, and slashed the remaining bulblin archer. Zelgius pulled himself up alongside him, breathing heavily. "I forgot...how hard it is...to climb in this...armor..." he wheezed.

Ike chuckled to himself. "Sorry 'bout that..."

Zelgius couldn't help but laugh. "Not your fault...I should've...thought to bring my other armor...as well..."

_"Hmmph. Took you long enough to get here."_

Both of them froze at that familiar—yet unfamiliar—voice. Ike could hardly bear to turn around, half-afraid of what he would see.

Mist stood in the same place Callum had, all that time ago. She wore a black dress that fell to her ankles, trimmed with red around the collar and hem. Long fingerless black gloves covered her pale, thin arms, and her hair was loose and tangled. She held a long blade with an intricate golden hilt in her left hand, with the casual ease of one confident in her skill and unafraid to show it. And her eyes were a blank, glowing, pupil-less red—exactly like Dark Link's.

"...Mist...?" Ike asked shakily.

_"Well, who else did you think it was?"_ She laughed, spinning the blade easily. _"Dark Link? No; he's waiting for you at the peak."_

"Why are you here...?" Zelgius asked quietly.

_"My job is to stop you from passing."_ she replied calmly. _"Dark Link wants to fight Courage alone, and he'd really rather not deal with you as well."_

"Mist..." Ike said, a bit of strength returning to his voice as he stepped forward. "Stand down. You can't fight us."

_"Why not?"_ she asked. _"I have a sword. Prince Marth's, in fact. Falchion is its name, I believe?"_ She spun it again and leveled it at him. _"I hear it's a good blade. I'd be happy to test it against yours."_

"Why are you doing this?" the mercenary commander demanded. "Why have you sided with _him!?_"

_"Well, isn't it obvious..."_ she replied. _"She couldn't go crying back to you after that exit she made, and there certainly aren't many other options. So she chose Dark Link. He did save her from freezing to death, after all."_

"Wait, what? Now you sound as if you aren't Mist." Ike said, puzzled. "What are you talking about?"

_"Simple, really. I was an annoying nuisance in Dark Link's head; now I'm a more _controlling_ annoying nuisance in your _sister's_ head. Honestly, it was her choice to let me in here; after all, I am the better fighter, and she did _so_ badly want to help him..."_

"Whoever you are, you still stand in our way." Zelgius said flatly. "Stand aside. We don't want to fight you."

_"And I'm sure she doesn't want to fight you, but hey, I have my orders, and believe me; when Dark Link's pissed, he's _really_ pissed."_ She smirked. _"So you can either fight me, surrender nicely, or run back down the mountain. It's your call."_

Ike looked from Ragnell in his hand to Falchion in Mist's. "I...I do not wish to fight you." he said slowly.

_"Is that the surrender option, then?"_ she asked smugly.

"I don't want to fight you," Ike continued, "but as it is, it seems I have no choice." He leveled Ragnell to line up with Falchion, letting their tips touch. "I will fight you. And I will drive you from my sister's body, and free her from this spell!"

_"Heh. Good luck."_ she replied, and then shot forward.

Marth was fighting Hylians at the foot of the mountain when he first spotted the kids.

His eyes widened and he threw the lizalfos he was fighting off. "Mark! Lucina!" he shouted.

The twins heard him and obediently trotted over. "Yes, my lord?" Mark asked politely.

"What are you doing here?" the Altean prince asked.

"Well, we came with Mother," Lucina explained.

Marth was about to ask where _she_ was when he heard a massive roar from overhead; looking up, he saw a bloodied white dragon throw the Shadow's black-red dragon off her, sending it careening painfully into the mountainside. _Oh,_ he thought blankly.

Then he heard a yowl and spun to see the lizalfos preparing to breathe fire. He was just about to leap backwards to dodge it when he heard a briefly shouted word and a rush of wind slammed into the creature, sending it flying backwards.

Elwyn hopped down off the ledge and hurried to join the other three. "Hello, my lord. Mark, Lucina." she said politely.

Luna appeared from behind the same ledge and hurried to join them, staff in hand. "Is everyone alright?" she asked quickly. "No injuries?"

Mark nodded. "Oh, no. We're quite all right, thank you."

Marth didn't reply, as he spotted a knight clad in dark armor—he believed they were called 'darknuts'—advancing on an archer, and hurried to take it down. The other four watched, faintly amused, as he expertly rolled around it and stabbed it right in the weak spot.

Elwyn turned and saw a pack of bulblins advancing on them. She prepared her spell and launched it; at almost the same time, several arrows sailed down, nailing half the pack in itself, so that her spell was almost wasted. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Deirdre, her mentor, and that other apprentice reaching for arrows as they turned to their next target.

Marth ducked back to rejoin them and recognized Deirdre instantly. "This is starting to feel like some sort of reunion," he commented.

"Indeed," Lucina replied. "Look, there's Roy."

The other four turned to see that, indeed, Roy was fighting next to a green-haired girl in a Crimean pegasus knight's armor, cutting down Hylians left and right. "Quite the reunion." Elwyn agreed. "I half expect for Kester and Dustin to charge in now with their lance and sword, with Will in the rear sending arrows over their heads...just like the old days..."

Then Luna's gaze fixed on a familiar green-clad paladin, and her eyes widened. "Speak of the devil," she murmured, and then ran towards him. "Dustin!"

Marth turned back to the mountain and strode forward. "Where are you going?" Mark called.

"To the peak," he replied. "Dark Link is there, and it's about time I confronted my fears."

Ike swung Ragnell up easily into a parry, blocking Mist's downward slash, and twisted the blade around. The girl spun with her weapon, flipping back into a crouch, and grinned. _"I'm not even getting tired,"_ she taunted.

Ike growled and fired a beam of magic at her; she rolled to the side and ran at him again, sword spinning. Their blades clashed once again.

She heard a snap and rolled aside again; a bolt of Alondite's magic swept over her head, just missing. Zelgius silently cursed.

Ike also cursed, loudly. "Be careful! We're not trying to kill her!" he snapped.

"Instinct," Zelgius replied. "Sorry."

_"You two are going too easy on me,"_ Mist teased, leveling Falchion back into a ready position. _"At this rate, it will be six forty-_nine _before you even touch me."_

"Don't flatter yourself," Ike growled.

The girl darted forward, slashing low; Ike jumped over it and swung at her, but she flipped away again—and found herself next to Zelgius.

_"Whoops. Oh well,"_ she said, and stabbed in at him.

He shoved her blade aside, but not before it managed to sneak through a gap and get a gash in his side. He kicked her in the legs and she fell backward; then she rushed him again, faked a left swing, and went in for the right side again. He parried—but that was a fake too, and she stabbed him in the left side again, through the gap in the armor, and wrenched hard. He gritted his teeth and didn't cry out; it was Ike who shouted in anger, and charged her. Zelgius pushed the girl off and stumbled back, clutching at his side in pain. Ike skidded to a stop in front of his husband and faced his sister with an angry gleam in his eyes.

The girl spun Falchion over her head once and lunged, stabbing; Ike easily dodge and slammed Ragnell down hard on her blade. The force of his blow tore the sword from her hand, sending it clattering to the ground away from her; she quickly flipped back before he could hit her and glared at him.

_ "Not bad,"_ she muttered. _"Damn. Where'd I put that Florite...?"_

Briefly distracted, she didn't notice Ike advancing until he'd grabbed her by the collar and lifted her a foot off the ground. "Get out of my sister's body," he snarled dangerously.

_ "You'd have to ask Dark Link to do that,"_ she replied, before biting down hard and trying to twist out of his grip. She succeeded, and fell to the ground; but then shrieked when a black boot came down on her right wrist, snapping it.

Zelgius glanced over at Ike. "Sorry," he said, teeth still gritted as blood dripped from his side, through his fingers and onto the ground.

"I don't think I mind this time," he replied, glaring at the girl on the ground.

Kaj skidded down the rocky slope to the bottom of the cliff, knife in hand. Several confused bulblins were gathered around the two bodies, chattering amongst themselves, unsure of what to do.

"Get away from them!" Kaj shouted, throwing several knives until they got the message and backed off. Rushing down to the fallen pair, he fell to his knees beside them.

The wolf had released his grip and Reverted—a wolf laguz? Kaj hadn't known they existed—into a young man with dark brown hair. He had a gash across his front and down one arm, and there was blood in his mouth—Kaj couldn't even tell if he were dead or alive, nor did he care. It was the other that concerned him.

Levail's leg that had been bitten was twisted unnaturally, and he lay awkwardly in the trampled-up dirt and snow. There was blood, and a lot of it; besides the knife and bite wounds, he had fallen against the rocks hard enough to give him several new injures.

"Levail..." Kaj moaned, lifting the sentinel's head onto his lap. "Levail, please wake up..! I—I promise I'll be good! I promise to tell the others! I won't be selfish anymore, I won't! Just—wake up! Please!"

His commander was terribly still, and if there was breathing, Kaj couldn't tell over his panic. "Levail, please!" he cried. "You can't die..! Not now! Not when we were just going to get out, not when we're just about to win...!"

_Not now, when I was finally going to...going to tell you..._

"Levail! Please!" he cried again. "Wake up! Open your eyes! _Please!_"

There was only silence.

Mist tried to wrench her wrist out from under Zelgius' foot and growled; _"Why are you still here? Go on! Go fight Dark Link, sacrifice yourself, whatever!"_

Ike shook his head. "Not until you let me talk to Mist."

_"I already told you, she's not available right now..."_ The girl suddenly kicked at Ike, slamming her foot into his ankle; it didn't hurt, but it caused him to stumble slightly. Zelgius thus distracted, she managed to pull her wrist out and roll to her feet.

Ike picked up Falchion in his free hand and looked at it thoughtfully—then tossed it over the cliff edge. "Let me talk to Mist." he said again.

_"Kill Dark Link first, and I will."_ she replied.

"Can you tell us who you are, at least?"

_"Oh, certainly. I am Dark Link's other half, simply put. Or rather, he is mine. We are opposites. I was first, but some damn bastard killed me, so this is how I am now."_ She spread her hands out and laughed. _"Admittedly, I've never been in any body before other than my own and Dark Link's—and your sister is quite interesting. She's almost as much fun to talk to as the great king himself."_

"Why do you serve Dark Link, then?" Zelgius asked. "If he is your opposite, as you put it, would you not be enemies?"

_"Well, we should be... but, well, he and I pretty much both want the same thing... Of course, he'd really let me have it if I told you about that."_ She smirked. _"Tell you what. If any of you figure out a way to get Mist to talk to you on her own, I'll tell you what Dark Link's secret is."_

Ike looked at her, then glanced over at Zelgius.

"She—or rather, _he—_isn't going to be of much help." the other mercenary said. "I doubt there is any way to get Mist to come out without his consent. You might as well go, and I'll—"

"Mist?"

The three of them turned to face the new, fourth voice;

Boyd stood on the edge of the path, facing the girl with confusion.

Far below, on a curving path up the mountainside, Marth found a familiar sword buried into a rock. He gasped when he recognized it;

_Falchion. What—what is my father's blade doing _here,_ after I threw it into the sea...?_

He could barely stand to touch it; when he did, all those horrors of the time before seemed to rush on him in an instant, and he fell back, breathing heavily.

_I can't—I can't touch it without thinking of Akaneia,_ he thought wearily. _I must really be a disgrace...The first descendant of the line of kings, unable to wield the sacred blade of his ancestor...when even my father could, he who was not of the line..._

_No,_ he suddenly thought. _I need that blade. It is the only one I know of that can hurt him... so...I must take it. No matter...what..._

Gritting his teeth, he approached the sword again and gripped the hilt with shaking hands.

"Mist?" Boyd asked again, walking forward slowly.

The girl glared at him. _"What do you want?"_ she demanded. _"Who are you, anyway?"_

"Mist, it—it's me." he said. "Boyd. Your—your friend."

_"No friend of mine,"_ she snapped.

"Boyd..." Ike said, starting to step forward.

Zelgius put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. "Don't." he said quietly. "Let him do this."

Boyd took another step, and she backed away, her back hitting a boulder. _"Don't come any closer!"_ she growled.

He stopped and just stared at her. "...Mist...I know you're in there." he said softly. "I know you can hear me. Please. Let me talk to you."

_"She doesn't want to see you,"_ she said darkly. _"She doesn't want to see any of you! You all—betrayed her!"_

"How? Betrayed you when?" he asked. "What is this about, the Black Knight? Are you mad that we accepted him?"

_"...Yes."_ the girl growled.

Boyd studied her face. "...No. You aren't." he suddenly said, decisively. "You're mad because you _couldn't_ accept him, aren't you?"

_"She doesn't want to say,"_ she said cautiously.

"Because you were always so forgiving of everyone, but then you couldn't forgive this..." Boyd laughed a little. "Is that all it is?"

_"...She doesn't want to see you."_ the girl said. _"She doesn't want to talk to anyone from the Greil Mercenaries. She betrayed you all, and you betrayed her."_

"Betrayed? No...no, Mist, you haven't betrayed us." He looked into her eyes pleadingly. "Everyone gets upset sometimes! Lots of people run away!" He took a step forward. "They can't always go back. But you can. You can come back. They'll all forgive you. I promise!"

_"She...doesn't...know you."_

"Mist...it's me. Boyd. Oscar's brother. Remember him? He was always like an older brother to you..."

_"She doesn't...want to speak of the dead."_

"And then there's all the others in the Greil Mercenaries...Do you remember any of them? Titania, Soren, Rolf...Ike...Zelgius?"

_"She doesn't...want to speak of murderers."_

"...Mist. It's me. Boyd. I—I forgive you. I _love_ you. Please..._come back_."

She blinked, and for a moment her eyes were their normal blue again. "B-Boyd...?" she asked weakly.

He just smiled.

Her eyes flickered between red and blue. Then the last of the red flickered out, and the blue stayed—and she burst into tears.

Kaj almost didn't notice it when Levail's eyes finally flickered open. He was sobbing when he suddenly felt a hand gently touch his cheek—and when he looked down, he found his piercing blue eyes meeting the gaze of Levail's soft brown ones.

"You...didn't...have...to cry...for me." he said weakly. "What...happened...to the...'fearless'...'assassin'...appearance?"

Kaj laughed and cried at the same time, one hand reaching up to grab Levail's. "I d-don't c-care about that a-anymore," he sobbed happily. "O-oh Goddess...y-you're...I...You're alive!"

Levail smiled gently. "I...guess...I should've...mentioned...the Micaiah thing...right?"

"Yes," Kaj said. "From now on, mention everything. Tell me _everything._ I don't want to never know something about you again...oh, Goddess...my Levail..."

And he leaned down and kissed him. And if anyone had been watching, they wouldn't have been able to tell whose smile was the brightest.

Marth, his eyes still closed, finally pulled Falchion out of the stone it had embedded itself in. He pushed aside the painful memories that were swirling in his brain, trying to get a hold to torment him further, and locked them away.

_I _will_ avenge you, Tamina,_ he thought firmly—and with that in mind, he started back up the path.

Ike was walking towards the path to the summit when Mist latched onto his arm. When he looked down at her, he saw her eyes were glowing red again.

_ "I made a deal, didn't I?"_ she said quietly. _"The secret. As I promised."_

She leaned up and whispered something into his ear. He thought for a moment, then nodded and stepped away. She smiled once—then the red disappeared again, and Mist fell back to Boyd's side.

Ike had come to a decision. He had been prepared to die before; indeed, he had hoped that, with his death, his friends would have peace.

But it was obvious now that Dark Link wouldn't give them that. Even after hearing his sister's—or rather, the being that possessed her—information, he was convinced that the Shadow would kill all of those who had opposed him, just to satisfy his anger. He was certain that, if the Shadow won, Tellius would go the way of Akaneia, simply so Dark Link would never have any opposition, any risk of retaliation.

Dying wouldn't help now.

And Ike turned back to the path, and began his ascent.

Two fighters stood on the peak of the mountain. A golden blade with black hilt, versus a silver one with violet wings. A tall, blue-haired mercenary; a short, shadowed king.

Blue eyes versus red ones.

"To be honest, I was not sure you would make it." Dark Link said quietly. "What with all the challenges I threw your way."

"I thought you wanted me alive, too...But those soldiers seemed all too ready to kill me." Ike stated.

"Indeed." Dark Link replied. "I had faith that you would dispose of them; their only purpose was to make sure none of your friends intervened, and perhaps to weaken you a bit for the battle."

"Still cheating?"

"I never had reason to stop." Dark Link raised his blade in something of a salute. "I suppose the girl must've failed as well."

"Using her was a low blow, even for you." Ike said. "I would've thought you better than that; possessing innocent girls with your dead opposite."

"Huh. So Link spilled his guts, eh...?" He clucked his tongue. "How typical. Heroes can never be trusted these days."

"Are you ready to end it?" Ike asked flatly.

Dark Link smiled. "I have been ready for fifteen years. Have at you, Ike, son of Gawain; and make it worth my time, if you will. I have another to hunt down after you, at all."

Ike spoke quietly, almost to himself; "When I came here, to this mountain...I fully expected to lose. I believed that I would die, and that you would take your damn Triforce and leave the rest of us in peace." His voice rose slightly as he raised his blade to the ready. "But apparently that isn't enough for you. You won't let anyone who stands in your way live, and you certainly won't stand for my friends—and for the risk that they may get revenge. I won't let that happen."

And finally, his voice firm and his mind set for battle, he declared; "I won't let them die for me ever again—and as a start, I will kill you, and avenge all of those who died on your blade!"

"Hah." Dark Link laughed with no humor. "You lost the first time; prepare to lose again!"

And their blades clashed.

The sounds of combat had rang loud and strong through the mountain pass for well over ten hours now. From the loud, frantic noises of the general combat, to the screams and roars of the dragon's battle, to the ringing of the powerful steel of the leaders' blades, it had never stopped.

And yet, as evening crept closer, only a little under thirty minutes from when the fatal duel had begun, the combat of the armies had not even begun to slow. Many soldiers were dead, many more wounded; some had fallen back, while others had joined the fray. A war such as this had never been seen.

Steel rang on steel once again as Ike parried the shadow king's blow, then shoved him back down and sliced with a mighty throw. Dark Link rolled back and casually flicked his blade aside, ignoring the drops of black blood that trickled from the cut on his arm. "You seem to have improved since our last fight," he commented.

"I have more reason to fight now," Ike countered, readying his blade again. "Before, I was just stalling. This time, I'm fighting for my friends' lives."

"Still, I do not want this battle to draw on." Dark Link muttered. "Perhaps I shall resort to other measures more quickly..." His hand slid down to the pouch on his belt—that strange pouch that seemed able to hold anything and everything...

Ike strode forward and slashed at him before he could pull anything out. The Shadow barely dodged away, then countered with a high diagonal slash that was far off the mark. Ike knocked the blade aside easily. Then he heard a familiar sound, and dashed backwards instinctively; he barely escaped being burned by the dome of fire that the Shadow had summoned.

Now Dark Link drew an item, even as he returned the red crystal to the pouch; a very familiar long black cord with a handle. Ike inadvertently shuddered at the sight of his former torment, the scars of which still crossed his flesh in numerous places. "At your ready," the Shadow said with a faint smirk.

Ike drew power into Ragnell's blade and fired a beam; Dark Link easily dodged aside, then snapped his wrist. The whip seemed to stretch out longer than was possible, cracking next to Ike's shoulder. He slashed to the side quickly, trying to slice off part of it, but missed as it returned to the Shadow.

"Come now," Dark Link said mockingly. "Come closer, and feel the sting of my blade."

Ike gritted his teeth and dashed in, sweeping low at the right side. Dark Link sidestepped, raising the whip out of the way, and snapped out at him again, slashing down at Ike's head at the same time. The mercenary dodged back, but got his wrist caught by the whip, and Ragnell slipped from his hand.

Dark Link tore the blade away even as Ike dove for it, sending it flying to the far end of the peak. Ike stumbled, then rolled aside before the Shadow could strike him, and dashed for his weapon.

A peculiar steel claw on the end of a chain seized the sword's hilt, dragging it away. Ike spun and saw Dark Link had drawn another item, a peculiar device with a handle that the claw-and-chain had been shot from. He slipped the claw device into his pocket, catching Ragnell in his off hand. "I've always wondered what your blade was like," he commented. "But now is not the time."

Even as Ike stepped forward, the Shadow slid the sword into his pouch, and it disappeared.

The mercenary said the worst word he could think of. "My, my." Dark Link scolded him mockingly. "It is a good thing your daughter was not here to hear you say _that._"

Then he shot forward, blade flashing, and Ike barely dodged aside. He managed to grab the Shadow's arm, dragging him off-balance; he overestimated Dark Link's weight, however, and ended up throwing him a good ten paces. The Shadow landed in a roll and came right back to his feet, wheeling to face Ike again.

"Are you afraid you can't beat me without cheating?" Ike demanded.

"I don't like to take chances." Dark Link replied.

"I'll take that as a yes." Ike unexpectedly rolled forward, coming to his feet as he kicked out at Dark Link's left leg. He felt it connect and the Shadow reeled backwards; Ike came fully to his feet and grabbed the Shadow's left wrist, twisting his sword out of it. Dark Link's right hand came across and grabbed at the hilt, even as Ike tried to pull it away; they were twisted up, locked in a struggle for the blade, for several seconds before Dark Link managed to shove Ike off-balance. Releasing his grip to catch himself, the mercenary fell back again as Dark Link readjusted his grip on his sword. "Nice try," he spat.

"So, this is all you are? A cheater and a murderer?" Ike said darkly.

"Why would you say that?" Dark Link replied, a bored tone in his voice.

"Your soldiers killed thousands of people under your orders! You've personally murdered _hundreds_ more!" Ike practically shouted. "And now, you can't even deign to play fair in a simple fight. Is that all you are!?"

"Well—"

"Is this what Zelda would have wanted!?"

Dark Link was physically knocked back by the mercenary's words. "W-where did you hear that name?" he asked, shock hanging in his voice.

But before Ike could answer, there was a scream and Dark Link barely turned in time to dodge as a blue-haired swordfighter jump-slashed down at him. He only just managed to cut a deep gash into the Shadow's arm, but—almost more importantly—he sliced the pouch off the belt, sending it bouncing off a stone and falling down the cliff. Dark Link snarled and wheeled to parry, knocking the blade off, but the other swordfighter was already moving.

He parried one of the Shadow's upper blows, managing to slice the wrist. The Shadow shoved his blade aside and stabbed, and the swordfighter's parry wasn't quite fast enough.

Ike stepped forward just as Dark Link shoved the other fighter off, and the blue-haired man stumbled backwards. The mercenary thought he recognized him, though from where he didn't know—but then he saw the mark on his hand and recognition dawned.

"Prince Marth?" he asked.

The swordfighter nodded, clutching the wound in his chest where Dark Link's blade had cut deep. "I assume that...you're Ike." he replied.

Ike realized the cuts that Marth had inflicted on the Shadow were not healing; he looked at the prince's blade in surprise. Marth shoved it at him. "Take it! It's up...to you now," he said, his voice already weakening. "It always was..."

The mercenary nodded, accepting the sword, and turned back to Dark Link.

"Well, isn't this touching." Dark Link spat sarcastically, tossing his sword to his off hand. "It looks like the Triforce bearers have all gotten together at last. How nice. Now I can claim the other two pieces at the same time—when I kill you both!"

And the two shot forward at the same time, and their swords rang off each other once again.

Steel bounced off steel, blade danced with blade, and the harmony never stopped for even a moment. The prelude was over; the duel had now begun.

Some time passed, and the fighting had yet to cease. Another slash of steel, and Dark Link's sleeve was torn off, being whisked away in a second by the mountain winds. The Shadow flipped around, slicing from behind; Ike twisted around to parry the blade, knocking its wielder back a pace before swinging Falchion the rest of the way around, to face him again.

Dark Link leapt in the air, slashing down as he went; Ike caught the blade against his own, supporting the Shadow's weight easily, and ducked aside as the boy landed on the ground. He twisted, Ike wheeled; their blades bounced off each other once before coming around again on the other side.

Their swords were a melody of death, and they never slowed their endless dance.

Ike saw an opening and went for it, Falchion sinking in low; but Dark Link pulled an unexpected move and jumped—

Not backwards, but up.

He balanced for a seemingly long second on Ike's blade, looking down at him with an air of triumph, and raised his sword to stab down at him.

Ike dove forward. Falchion swung wide and Dark Link was forced to leap off, landing lightly on his feet even as the mercenary rolled to his own.

"Nice try," Ike spat.

Dark Link growled. "You will _not_ deny me what is mine!" he spat, and darted forward again.

Ike parried, and their blades sang again. "I know everything, Dark Link!" he shouted. "Everything."

"How much could you know!?" the Shadow said in fury.

"I know why you're here! I know why you seek the Triforce!"

"What you think you know is a pack of lies! My opposite knows nothing of me!"

"He knows everything of you there is!" Ike shoved Dark Link back again, then attacked, gaining the offensive. "You and Zelda. That's it. She died and you want to bring her back!"

"No!" Dark Link fell back, breathing heavily. "You know _nothing!"_

Ike spread his hands out wide. "I know what he told me. And I know what is real."

"What!?"

"That's all there is. You want to bring her back, because you loved h—"

"No!" Dark Link screamed, a barely concealed sob in his voice as he attacked again. Ike's parry was lightning fast. The blades' melody sang even faster. "I did not! _I did not love her!_"

Ike caught Dark Link in a sword lock, pressing down on him, the harmony temporarily stopped, and said;

"Yes. You did."

Dark Link screamed in rage and sorrow, throwing Ike off and stumbling back. The mercenary leveled his blade at his enemy, and felt a familiar power building up inside him.

He threw Falchion in the air; its spin was perfect. Then he leapt after it and caught the handle.

The world spun three times, and he shouted as he brought the blade down.

Piercing the Shadow's heart, and halting the song of their steel forever.

All the fighting stopped. A golden light appeared above the peak, enveloping it in radiance, blotting out any sign of what had occurred.

Tiki, wounded and weary, landed on a cliff with a surprised thump as her opponent dissolved into a shower of scarlet that flowed up through the wind and to the peak.

Mist shuddered in pain and fainted into Boyd's arms as a red speck of light floated out of her heart and up the ascent.

And the whole world seemed to be holding its breath.

Dark Link stared at his hand with a weak semblance of surprise. He felt no pain; he felt no remorse; indeed, he felt nothing at all. Everything around him seemed to be going white and fuzzy. He didn't understand anything, and he didn't know what to do.

He was scared.

Then he heard a soft voice, and when he looked up, he met the eyes of someone he'd thought long lost.

"...Princess..." he breathed. Falchion seemed to dissolve from his chest, and he rose to his feet as she approached him, smiling, one hand reaching out to gently take his own.

She was so _warm_.

He felt tears coming to his eyes, an emotion he'd thought impossible for him to feel—and he was so happy he didn't think he could be alive, but that didn't matter at all.

"Zelda...!"

He stepped forward to embrace her, and the last of the world disappeared into her eyes.

Ike stood, breathing heavily, as Dark Link's body dissolved around the blade of Falchion. The dark shadowy stuff of which he had been made floated into the air, keeping a semblance of shape for only a moment, before it was blown away. All that was left was a ball of glowing red light.

Marth walked to his side, looking at the light, ignoring the pain of his wound. "It's over," he breathed. "It's finally over..."

Then Ike felt a sharp pain in his right hand and withheld a small gasp. He looked down at it and saw a ball of green light was swelling around it; at a second glance, he saw blue light was building around the hand of the Altean Prince.

A shower of red swept down through the wind, and joined the scarlet light of Dark Link's remains. There was a sound that could only be described as glass shattering; and then almost all of Ike's vision was blotted out by golden light from the heavens. The three colored lights flowed up into the sky, rearranging themselves—with red on top, blue on bottom left, and green on bottom right, forming a familiar geometrical shape.

Then the lights shattered into gold, and when it cleared, three golden triangles were left in their wake.

Ike heard a voice in his head. It was a strange voice; it couldn't be described as loud or soft, male or female, gentle or aggressive, sad or even happy. _"Welcome, Ike."_

Marth and the peak seemed to blur out of existence as the voice continued; _"I am the spirit of the Triforce—the golden power of the goddesses. I will grant the first wish of anyone who touches me."_

The golden triangles descended from the sky, hovering in a cloud of what could be described as light, or smoke, or merely power. _"You have claimed me from the other bearers. Now you have the golden power. Just touch me, and I will fulfill your heart's desire."_

Ike raised a hand slightly, staring into the light. "My wish...?" he said softly.

_"That's right. Your wish."_

He took a step forward. "My...wish."

And his palm lay flat against the golden power, and it was burning under his touch.

Far below, in the pass where the armies waited, a hundred thousand bodies and souls slowly dissolved into a golden radiance. And then those lights flashed over the land again, and then they were gone—

And the forces of darkness had returned home.


	24. XXIII

_After that stupid melodramatic opening comment of the last chapter, I'd just like to say; that was a stupid and melodramatic opening for a chapter, that last chapter was._

…_..Geez, my author's notes need an editor. :D *shot*_

_Anyway, battle's over! Everybody's happy, and I'm a believer in lots of wrapping up, so here's the first and longest of the two wrapping-up chapters! (Not counting the !short! epilogue~)_

_Enjoy! Reviews are always appreciated, I do not own Fire Emblem, etc. etc._

_ ~DarkieDucessa_

* * *

**~Chapter Twenty-Three**

_ December 31st, 648._

_ Morning._

Ike awoke from pleasant dreams to a bright golden light. His eyes opened once, then closed again in aversion to the brightness. Then they opened a second time, more slowly, letting the light—and reality—filter in little by little.

It was sunny. He was in a bed—a real bed, not a cot or on a blanket on the ground. His clothes were different—a simple white shirt and pants, loose and comfortable. He wondered if he was dreaming again.

He sat up slowly and winced in pain, feeling his recent injuries flare up. So much for it being a dream. He looked around and saw the sunlight was being let in through glass windows, which there were several of, ringing the room in light. He could see trees outside, and more buildings—and beyond those buildings, the Tower of Guidance. _Sienne?_ he wondered blankly.

Ike sat up the rest of the way and glanced at his side. Sitting in a chair, slumped on the bedside and sleeping fitfully, was Zelgius. The mercenary gently touched his husband's shoulder and shook it slightly; the other woke instantly, looking up with faintly bleary emerald eyes.

They brightened when they met Ike's sparkling blue ones. "Ike," Zelgius said, no small amount of happiness in his voice.

"Zelgius," Ike replied, smiling, and leaned down to kiss him.

It took Marth a long moment to realize he was even awake. His eyes were open, but everything seemed blurred and indistinct. Everything was starting to clear, but it was a slow process.

He sat up and held back a small cry as pain flared up in his chest. He put a hand on it and was relieved to feel that his heart still beat underneath all the bandages—for a moment, he'd wondered if he was dead. Certainly he didn't know how he could've gotten _here,_ wherever this was. The sunlight was pretty, though—it felt as if he hadn't seen any for a long time, though he knew that wasn't actually true.

Then he remembered what had happened the previous day, and looked at the back of his right hand. Even with his vision fuzzy, he could see that the triple triangle was gone.

His eyes blurred further as tears welled up in his eyes, and then he cried—cried in relief that the mark he had born for so many months, the mark that brought the deaths of his friends, the mark that had made his home burn... was finally... _gone._

In the room next door over, Soren woke up quietly, his eyes blinking open to find himself facing Elena. She smiled faintly when she saw he was awake. "How do you feel?"

"...Fantastic," he said with some surprise and no sarcasm. "Absolutely fantastic."

She touched his forehead gently. "Your fever's finally gone. I'm so glad! Father said you were sick for so long, and I was worried you'd never get better..."

He smiled faintly. "No illness lasts forever, Elena... I was bound to get better eventually."

"Still, it's a good thing that we flew you back here to Sienne." she said. "Or it really might've gotten worse."

"Heh." He paused for a moment. "Is Ike...?"

"He's fine." she said quickly. "Alive and healing quickly."

"But...I heard one of the others say that the peak he was on crumbled after he fought Dark Link..."

"Well, it did. Tiki got up there and pulled him out—and Prince Marth, too." She gently brushed some of Soren's hair out of his face. "Still, it was stressful for a while. I'm glad you were with me, or I might never have gotten through it..."

"Even without all my hair...?"

Her smile widened. "Even without it."

"...huh." He sighed happily. "I suppose it worked."

"Hmm?"

"My experiment. I was wondering if...if you would care about me still, even if I cut my hair..."

She smacked him lightly. "Ow! Hey!"

"Don't be stupid!" she scolded him. "Of course I care about you! Why would your hair length change that!? It's actually almost cuter this way!"

He blushed, and she giggled.

Naesala woke after a fitful sleep, sitting up in bed and wincing as his torn wings got caught up in the blanket. "How are you feeling?" Lucia asked.

"I've been better," the Raven replied. "It's a good thing you found us when you did..."

"At least it wasn't Tibarn who found you, or he might've thought Leanne getting hurt was your fault." Lucia commented.

"True..." He sighed slightly. "I guess I'll have to apologize for that. Oh, and I have to make sure my troops are alright, and take them home...and I really have to check on Leanne, too..."

Lucia put a hand on his arm. "Relax," she said comfortingly. "I spoke with Tibarn, and he doesn't blame you for her getting hurt. She's fine, actually—in better condition than you. And Tibarn was good enough to manage your soldiers as well as his own."

"Oh...phew." He sighed again and leaned back against the pillow. "I can't stay wounded forever, though...I'd hate to imagine all the things I've neglected while lying here..."

"Nothing that couldn't stand being neglected," Lucia said firmly. "Rest. You deserve a break, after all that's happened."

"We all do..."

It was a miracle, the healers had said, that Levail had survived both the wounds inflicted during the fight and those gained when he fell off the cliff. As it was, he had been barely alive when Jak had carried him back, and they'd had to resort to a Recover staff before his wounds would even stop bleeding; they'd then sent him to Sienne with the advance flight for better care. Levail still slept now, quietly; Jak was slumped in his chair, asleep as well, having refused to leave his side.

"I still don't understand why he hid from you," Rolf said quietly, looking at the boy and talking to Deirdre. "I mean, you were fighting in the same army for weeks! And yet he never told you he was there. Just...why?"

"Maybe he thought they wouldn't like it if he were there," Shinon suggested.

"Maybe... but then again, maybe he didn't know they were here?" Rolf asked.

Deirdre studied the sleeping dark-haired boy. "...I don't know," she murmured softly. "But, maybe...maybe he just wanted to be left alone." Then she quietly went and got a blanket from a cabinet, draping it over Jak gently.

Rolf watched her and sighed slightly. "Oh, Deirdre..."

Shinon gave him a long look. "...She's out of your league, kid." he said quietly.

Rolf blinked. "That's funny coming from you. You're too old for her!" he insisted.

"Somehow, I doubt that."

"Oh, come on..."

Deirdre glanced at the two of them. "Hmm? Did you say something?"

"No," they replied in unison. Then they glared at each other, ignoring the girl's confused glances back and forth between them.

In another room of the hospital, not far from where the Altean prince slept, his sister and her protector talked quietly about another patient that slept before them.

"Why did you rescue him?" Elice Caeda asked.

Stefan paused for just a moment. "...He is a human being too." he finally said. "He has the same right to live as the rest of us."

"You heard what Jak said. He tried to kill him and Levail."

"You would have too, if Levail had killed me or one of your brothers."

"That's beside the point. Even if he recovers, he will only seek to destroy the others again. Wouldn't it have been better just to let him die?"

Stefan paused again, then shook his head. "No."

"Why not?"

"Because it's never better to leave a good person to die than to save them."

"He is not 'good'."

"Isn't he? He certainly isn't evil. Just...heartbroken." The trueblade gently brushed a strand of hair out of the sleeping Sothe's face. "I won't tell him that Levail survived. Jak and he were going to leave soon anyway, so as long as this boy never sees them again, he can go on living his life. It's better than if he'd died, wouldn't you say?"

"...I'll leave it up to your judgment, Stefan. But...do be careful. I don't think I want to see anyone else die..."

He turned back to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Relax, Li-cae. Everything will be fine."

She smiled faintly. He leaned in and gave her a quick peck on the lips, causing her to blush, and then hugged her close.

_ Midday_

Elincia flexed her wounded fingers slowly, wincing only a little as the torn skin stretched around. "Do they feel alright?" Geoffrey asked worriedly.

"Yes, Geoffrey." she assured him. "I'll be able to take these bandages off in no time at all."

"That's a relief."

"Don't worry, dear," she said slyly. "I'll be able to wear the ring when we get married, never fear." Geoffrey blushed slightly, causing her to grin.

"Ah, young love!" Sharon said with a sigh, watching from across the room. "It's fun to watch the couples around here, now that we don't have anything to worry about."

"There seem to be a bunch of 'em," Roy agreed. "Those two, for starters. Then Sis and that Stefan guy, and Jak and Levail, and all those other ones who don't even realize they like each other..."

"Do we fall in that category?" Sharon asked teasingly.

He poked her. "Of course not, my princess! I'm so forward with my love and attention, there's no _way_ you could've missed it!" He paused. "Or did you?"

Sharon laughed. "I wouldn't miss it for the world, silly boy." she chuckled fondly, pulling him closer.

"...And then I heard you calling me, and I woke up." Mist finished. "That's all I remember."

Boyd sat back slightly. "Whoa. You've been through a lot since you left..."

She nodded. "It...it wasn't all good, but at least...I think I might understand myself a little better now." she said faintly.

He put a hand on hers. "And you're sure you're alright now?" he asked. "The... _other_ _guy_ is all gone?"

"Yes." She smiled. "All gone. I think he disappeared once the shard of the Triforce of Power left me..." She paused for a moment. "I...I really am sorry, Boyd. For...leaving like I did..."

"Hey, it's alright." He smiled faintly. "I understand you were upset, and no real harm came of it... so, it's fine. You're safe now, and that's all that matters."

She blushed slightly. "A-ah...I'm...glad. That you...could...forgive me."

He hugged her warmly. "And I'm glad that you came back to me."

"Boyd..."

"I still can't believe that he's gone..." Marcia said sadly, her fingers running gently over the silky petals of the dark red rose she held. They were in one of the numerous snow-sprinkled gardens, and she had found a rosebush that wasn't completely frozen.

"I never did get to beat him..." Kieran agreed. "He always seemed to best me, in everything we did, without even trying...! I don't think I'll ever meet another man like him."

"No one could ever be like Oscar," she stated. She plucked off a rose petal and watched it float away on the breeze. "No one..."

"I could try," he mumbled. "I could...just _try _to live up to his name."

Marcia plucked off another rose petal, this time staring at it in her hand. "...No." she finally said, closing her fist on it. "I don't want you to be like him. I don't want _anyone_ to try and be like him. I...I want him to remain...as he is. As a memory...of someone who was good...and kind. But...just that. A memory...nothing more."

Kieran glanced at her sadly. "...Only that?"

She crumpled the rose in her hand, then opened the fist again and watched the petals float away. "Only that. That's the only way I can keep the pain from being...overwhelming." she admitted. "By pretending that...he is nothing but a memory, a distant memory, and that this hurt I feel..." She gently put her hand over her heart. "This...agony...only goes away...when I pretend that I am only imagining it. Otherwise, I think it would kill me..."

Kieran put a hand over hers gently. "Then let it fade." he said softly. "So that your heart will heal, and your final gift from him will not be one of pain and sadness."

Her smile was brave and weak, and she didn't last long before a tear trickled down her cheek again. He gently brushed it off her cheek, his touch lingering for longer than necessary.

She abruptly hugged him, burying her face in his chest. "Oh, Goddess," she said weakly, barely holding back a torrent of tears. "Don't go. Please, don't go...! Don't ever leave again..."

He wrapped his arms around her and rested his head on top of hers. "I promise, Marcia." he said. "I will never leave you behind again! I swear it on my life, and if I fail, may the goddess smite me where I stand!"

She sniffled and laughed a little. "Thanks...Kieran." she murmured. "Thank you...so much..."

Ranulf was startled out of his reverie by a cheerful voice shouting "Boo!" He nearly fell into the frozen-over garden pond he sat next to. "Darn it, Darkie!" he shouted. "Don't _do_ that! I could've fallen in!"

"It's frozen. Besides, we all know you could use a bath," Ducessa said teasingly, limping forward and sitting down next to him.

"So says you," he grumbled.

"And Alyx," she reminded him.

"Mom was always too much like a beorc!" he complained. "Making me get up early, making me take baths...It's unnatural, I tell you!"

She laughed. "So I said, before she made _me_ take a bath. It was actually pretty nice!"

"Good Goddess, not you too!" He groaned. "And then I saw Lethe and Lyre were taking a bath! Geez, are _all_ Cats going crazy!?"

"When were you watching Lethe and Lyre take a bath?" she asked slyly.

He turned bright red. "Well, I...uh...I didn't...actually..._see_...them...er...I...uh..."

She laughed again. "So, which one d'you 'like' like?" she asked. "I know you've got a crush on at least _one_ of them."

"Um..." He thought about it. "I dunno. Lethe's cool, and a good fighter...she's one of my best friends. And Lyre is awfully cute, and she's alright too, and a lot like Lethe...but then Lethe is a lot like Lyre...I don't really know."

"You'd better decide soon," Ducessa remarked, smirking slightly, "or Lyre's going to challenge me to another duel for who gets to spend more time with you, and I don't think I'd do so hot on this leg."

"Right...How is it?" he asked, leaning over to look at her leg with concern.

She drew it up and rubbed the wounded spot, just under her knee. "It's alright...but the healers tell me that I've been gotten that same leg burned, sliced, broken and gored one too many times. I may have a permanent limp now from all that wounding and re-healing."

"Oh no!" he yelped. "That's terrible!"

"I know, right?" She sighed. "I guess this means I'm going to have to leave the army...heh...I suppose some quiet time would be nice for a change, but I won't get to see my friends anymore."

"...Look on the bright side," Ranulf supplied. "You won't have to deal with those stupid Cats in your old squad."

She smiled. "Right. Those guys... I'm not sure if it's okay for me to be happy that they're gone, but I am."

"Huh?"

"Didn't I mention it? Angus was killed in the battle yesterday. Mauren saw it happen...apparently it drove him insane. Jaycea quit the army to take him home."

"Well...I don't know if it's necessarily a good thing to be happy about it, but I think we can safely say that the world is better off without them around." Ranulf said after a long pause.

She nodded. "Yeah..."

"Captain!"

"Ranulf!"

"Ranny!"

The two Cats were suddenly joined by an overenthusiastic Lyre, a smiling Lethe, and a cheerful Alyxaidra. All three of them had wet hair. "Ranulf, you gotta try it!" Lyre was saying. "It's fantastic! It feels so good! I don't know why we didn't do it before!"

"And it's so comfortable and relaxing and warm, you could fall asleep." Lethe added.

"See, Ranny! I'm not the only Cat who likes to take baths!" Alyx said happily.

Ranulf did a little moan and a double facepalm, then shouted at the sky. "Help! I'm surrounded by bath enthusiasts!"

"Ranulf..." Alyx said dangerously. "If you're not going to take a bath on your own...then I'll have to tickle you into submission!"

With a wild shout, she jumped on him and started tickling him. He started laughing and shouting "Help! The b-bath enth-thusiasts a-are attacking! ..M-Mom, I'm not a kid anymore, s-s-stop it!"

Alyx started laughing wildly. Lyre jumped on to help, her laughing adding to the fray, and Lethe and Ducessa dissolved into giggles.

Skrimir blinked, watching the Cats at play with a slightly confused expression. "Children," he finally grumbled.

"Why were you guys gone for so long?" Elwyn asked, arms crossed. "And why weren't you with the nobles? You were supposed to be their bodyguards, not wander off by yourselves!"

Kester stared straight ahead. "Very sorry, milady." he said stiffly. "Won't happen again."

"Elwyn, stop teasing them," Luna said defensively, clinging to Dustin's arm. "You know it wasn't their fault."

The other twin smirked slightly. "Well, still! How did you two end up in Begnion, anyway?"

"When I was separated from the princess after the Hylian attack, I kept going on our former route, as planned." Dustin explained. "She'd told me before then to do that if we got separated. And then one of Will's followers picked me up, which was how I found him."

"Okay, what's Kester's excuse?" Elwyn asked teasingly. "Did you get lost as well?"

"Er...no." he replied. "I was...uh..."

"Fired," Dustin supplied helpfully.

"Dustin!" Kester shouted. "I told you not to tell!"

'Well, you were going to have to say it anyway." the sword paladin replied.

"Fired?" Elwyn laughed. "How, pray tell?"

"I was framed!" he insisted. "One of the enlisted soldiers stole that sword and they pinned it on me because I was a mercenary! I swear! I don't even _use_ a sword!"

The other three laughed, and Elwyn put a hand on the lance paladin's arm. "It's okay, my dear," she said, eyes sparkling. "We all know you're not a thief. Did Will's messenger bring you to Begnion?"

He nodded. "I overheard him talking to someone on the road about Lord Sephiran and his spokesperson, who sounded an awful lot like him...so I followed him to Begnion and ran into William himself."

"And the three of you came with Lord Sephiran to the battle yesterday." Luna concluded.

"Mhmm."

"Where is Will, anyway?" Elywn asked.

"Probably writing reports for Lord Sephiran and the Apostle." Dustin said. "I think I heard Lord Sephiran mention that he wanted to make him his personal secretary or something like that."

"Really?" Luna smiled. "Sounds like our little Will's moving up in the ranks!"

"A desk job, though?" Kester laughed. "I don't envy him!"

"True, you are much more of the dashing soldier type," Elwyn said.

"Which reminds me," Luna said with a small smirk. "Don't you two have something to tell us?"

Elwyn and Kester turned slightly pink. "Why ever would you say that?" the twin asked innocently.

Dustin laughed. "Don't pretend like we haven't noticed the matching rings. So, which one of you proposed?"

"Me, of course," Kester said, unafraid, as Elwyn blushed deep red. "A while ago, actually, back in Altea. We were going to tell you, but...it never seemed to be the right time."

Luna nodded. "I understand. Is the wedding soon?"

"Oh, probably around the same time as yours." Kester smirked as the other two turned bright red.

"H-how could you tell?" the red-headed girl asked.

"It's pretty obvious," her twin said teasingly. "You've been all over him since we were kids, and from the moment we met up again you haven't stopped clinging to him."

"I proposed to Luna probably around the same time as Kester did to Elwyn," Dustin admitted. "We kept it secret for the same reasons..."

"Apparently we're going to be a pair of identical couples," Elwyn said, eyes sparkling. "Like identical twins!"

"And you know what they say about identical twins?" Luna asked.

"I have the feeling you're going to tell us," Kester muttered.

"They always stay together!" the twins chimed in unison.

"Hmm, I wonder how much a house big enough for two families would cost?" Elwyn asked.

"Probably not too much," Luna replied. "Personally, I'd like to live in Gallia..."

"Really? Me too!"

"We could build a house next to Alyx's!"

"Oh my gosh, that would be _perfect!"_

The twins chattered on about living space and preferable countries and Cat laguz. Kester and Dustin watched their fiancés with amused smiles on their faces.

"Mother!" Mark rushed straight to the bedside of the Divine Dragon. "Are you alright?"

Tiki smiled and patted her son on the shoulder. "Yes, Mark, I'm fine."

"But that dragon really hurt you..."

The viridian-haired woman sat up, ignoring the small pain in her chest, and looked down at the bandages wrapped all over her front. "True, the wounds seemed worse when I was in my other form," she said, a slight tone of amusement in her voice. "But dragons heal quickly."

"So you always say, even though that one time you fell out of a tree and broke your arm it took twice as long to heal as it would have taken a human," Mark said firmly, crossing his arms.

"Eh...We heal quickly for a _dragon's_ lifespan..." she amended.

"Mother!" he scolded. "You cannot go on taking so many risks! What if you were killed? It would shatter Lucina!"

Tiki looked down at the blue-haired girl, sleeping in the chair next to the bed, and reached over to pat the girl's head gently. "You're right, Mark..." she said softly. "But...sometimes sacrifices are necessary for the greater good."

"The dragon would not have attacked the generals after they got to the peak," the boy stated. "You didn't need to keep fighting after you were wounded."

"But I did." she replied. "I had to keep the dragon fighting me, or he would have gone and attacked other soldiers not as powerful as he. Many more would have died..."

"And then why did you go have to get General Ike and Prince Marth? Anyone could have rescued them. It didn't have to be you!"

"Yes, it did." she murmured. "No one else was close enough. I almost missed them as it was. No...The path I chose kept others from being hurt, and that is what I want."

"But why?" he asked. "Why not take care of yourself before others?"

She looked at him, then glanced down. "I did that once before," she said, so soft it was practically a whisper. "And when I did that, my husband died. Your father...I could have saved him. If I had only gone...and..."

"Mother..."

She shook her head, wiped a tear out of her eye, and looked up to meet her son's eyes with a bright smile. "But the past is behind us! We must always look to the future. Tell me, Mark...Where do you want to go now, that the Shadow is gone?"

He paused for a long moment. "...You're right. The Shadow's gone, Tellius is free...We could go anywhere we wanted."

She nodded. He thought for a moment. "...We'll go back to Goldoa."

"Goldoa?"

"Yes. To recharge your Divinestone."

Tiki turned slightly pink. "Ah, yes...about that..."

Mark knew that look. "...Mother...You broke it, didn't you?"

"...Yes."

He gasped. "Mother! How could you!?"

"I'm sorry, Mark...its power ran out and it shattered as I landed. I'm just an...ordinary human now."

Mark sighed. "Goddess, Mother...Why are you always such a klutz?!"

She shrugged. "I suppose it's in my nature." Then she smiled. "But hey! It's not a problem. ...After all, the world doesn't need another manakete anyway."

"...You're the last one, Mother."

"Exactly. Better that I be just a huma—no, _beorc—_with pointed ears than a dragon from a country long dead. The latter would only bring...painful memories..."

He sighed again. "Oh, Mother...Whatever shall I do with you?"

_Afternoon_

Ike, showing that same resilient ability of his to recover from wounds very quickly again, was already up and walking about. Some of the healers had protested, saying he should rest, but he couldn't stand to lie around in bed any longer like a useless lump. He wanted to see his friends.

After the battle, he had learned, the army had only had to march for a few hours to reach Sienne. The leaders had been brought to Mainal Cathedral; it was the east wing that had been set up as a hospital for the wounded of those. He could hear the sounds of celebration outside as the Begnion people celebrated both the Apostle's return and the coming of the new year.

He looked down from the first-floor balcony at the snow-covered central garden, where those unhurt and those wounded well enough to move around were hanging out together. He could see Elincia and the few of the top Royal Knights that were left, talking together. He saw Ranulf playing amongst a group of Cat girls, laughing. He saw several Alteans and Stefan chatting and smiling.

And the mercenaries—the Greil Mercenaries, his dear friends that he'd been willing to die for—they were there too. Titania was talking with Rhys and Mia. Shinon and Rolf seemed to be talking about something, while a red-faced Deirdre and a laughing Gatrie looked on. Soren, who looked slightly different for some reason, flipped through a tome. And Mist and Boyd sat together against a pillar, hands tightly clasped.

They had all gone through so much, suffered through their own trials—and now, finally, everyone was back together again.

It was strange, Ike thought. Just a few days ago, the sight of snow would have made him think of Mist leaving, and Crimea's occupation, and Hyrule. But now, none of those things came to mind—instead, he just thought on how beautiful the sparkling white powder was.

"Dad!"

He turned in surprise as the blue-haired girl barreled into him, eyes bright. "Elena," he said, smiling gently.

"I'm so glad you're okay!" she said cheerfully, stepping back. "After all," she added, loudly, as she heard footsteps behind her, "I wouldn't have liked to be stuck with just _him_ to watch over me."

"Hey, enough of that already!" Tibarn paused when he saw Ike. "Oh. Hey, Ike."

"Tibarn." Ike replied with a slight nod.

"Jerkass." Elena said, turning to face the Hawk with a smile on her face.

"Brat." he replied, equally cheerful.

Ike blinked. "Um...I was going to thank you for watching out for Elena for us, Tibarn." he said, slightly cautious.

"No need," Tibarn replied. "Though I certainly deserve it, after having to put up with _her_ for two weeks."

"You? _I _deserve thanks for being willing to listen to _you_ for two weeks!" she replied.

Ike blinked again. They spoke in such a lighthearted tone, it was hard for him to tell whether they were being serious or not. "Eh...well..."

"Hey birdbrain!" Elena said, eyes suddenly sparkling. "Betcha' you can't beat me around the garden twice!"

"In your dreams, little girl!" he replied.

She laughed and dashed off. "Hey, no head starts!" he shouted, starting after her. "I'm not giving you handicaps just 'cause you're so little!"

"I should be giving _you_ a headstart, old man!" she shouted back.

"Hah! I'm not that old that I can't beat you!"

Ike watched the Hawk king and his daughter race off with an expression of confusion on his face. "...So...are they friends, or not...?" he asked blankly.

"I have found it is best not to ask."

Ike turned to face Zelgius and smiled. "I suppose you're probably right, in that respect..."

Zelgius stepped forward, wrapping an arm around Ike gently. "Come on, love." he said. "Let's go down. I'm sure they will all be glad to see you are well."

Ike nodded.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Elice Caeda asked carefully. "You were wounded very badly..."

"Sister, I'm fine." Marth assured her. "I'll be healed in less than a week, with all of you taking care of me."

"He's got a point there," Roy chuckled. "I mean, with about forty priests on orders to have all of us in perfect health, how can he _not_ get better fast?"

Elice Caeda laughed. "Of course, of course."

"...It seems so strange, to have all of use back together." Roy said, his voice slightly subdued. "It's been...what, four months since we've all been together? Five?"

"It's not so much time on the grand scale of things..." Marth murmured. "But so much has happened, it seems as if that night we fled was years ago."

"And especially with all the new girlfriends and boyfriends we've all gotten," Roy added with a smug little smirk. "After all, most of us were loveless when we left back then."

"Oh, please," Elice Caeda said, rolling her eyes. "You had four girlfriends."

"Eh, but I never proposed to any of them!"

"So you say," Marth teased. "Speaking of, have you even proposed to Sharon yet?"

"Uh...well...She knows I want to!"

The older two laughed. "Well, what about you, Elice Caeda?" Roy said. "Or should I say, _Li-cae?_"

"I actually like that nickname, for your information." she said, blushing. "I wouldn't mind if everybody called me that."

"Meh. So you say, but we all know that it's Stefan's special little name for you."

"Well, why should I be ashamed that I've fallen in love?" she said, smiling brightly. "After all, you two have done the sa—"

She cut herself off, and she and Roy both glanced sidelong at Marth. He just smiled, faintly. "It's alright. I wouldn't dream of letting you be worried over me about something like this."

"Marth..." Elice Caeda said softly.

"It's okay," he said again. "I've known love, and I'm glad I got to experience it. Even if it was only a year, those memories with Tamina will last me a lifetime. I...I don't deserve anything more."

"What about the queen?" Elice Caeda asked quietly, glancing over at Elincia. She spoke and laughed with the Crimean Knights, but always remained clinging to Geoffrey's side.

"What about her?" Marth asked, his smile slightly faded.

His sister's sapphire eyes were sad. "...You...love her, do you not?"

The prince was silent for a long moment. "...I confess, I...I do feel a certain..._fondness _for her." he finally admitted. "If I had more time to build on it, if I were allowed to build on it, then yes...I would call it love. But, well..." He sighed slightly. "I know she loves him, and I know he loves her back. So...I will wish her happiness. And I will never tell either of them how I feel, lest I somehow hurt them by my words."

"...Dear brother..."

"I...feel a bit tired. I'm going to go rest. I'll see you later." Marth walked away.

Roy sighed. "...Doesn't he realize?" he asked, turning to his sister. "He...he does deserve more. He _deserves _to love again._"_

"And to have that love returned." Elice Caeda sighed. "But, I suppose...not everyone in this world gets what they deserve."

Zelgius' words had been true, and all the Greil Mercenaries were delighted to see Ike was feeling better.

"Commander," Titania said with a wide smile. "You're up!"

"Hah! I knew that a few wounds wouldn't get ya down!" Mia said cheerfully.

"Are you sure you should be moving around just yet?" Rhys asked, less than cheerfully.

"Hey, Ike!" Rolf said, breaking off from his rather angry conversation with Shinon for a minute.

Ike blinked. "Wait...Are you two actually arguing? I thought I was seeing things wrong earlier."

"Yeah, well, he..." Shinon trailed off.

"It's nothing," Rolf insisted.

Gatrie laughed. "Oh, you might as well tell him that you're arguing about Deir—"

"Shut up!" Shinon and Rolf said in unison, as the two archers turned their glares on the blond knight and the third, blue-haired one turned red.

"What?" Gatrie asked defensively. "He would've only had to listen for a minute to figure it out himself!"

"We are _not _arguing about that," Shinon said darkly, glancing back at Ike. "Stay out of this."

"I wouldn't dream of interfering," Ike replied. He let the two archers go back to their conversation.

"Brother..." Mist looked down at her feet apologetically. "I...I'm...I'm so sorry."

"Mist..." He hugged her warmly. "It's alright."

"Can you ever forgive me...?"

"There was never anything to forgive."

She smiled.

Mist stepped back, and Boyd and Ike met each other's gazes for a brief moment. Nothing needed to be said.

"Good to see you're up," Boyd said.

Ike nodded. "I really wasn't hurt that bad, you know."

"Then I suppose you wouldn't argue for some sparring later! I feel like I've been getting soft against these pushover enemies. Wouldn't mind an actual challenge!"  
"Hah! It's on."

"Ike."

"Soren!" He quickly turned to the mage, who'd snuck up on him while he was talking. "Are you feeling better? Is your fever all gone?"

"Yes."

Ike looked at the mage for a long moment. There was definitely _something_ different about him today...

"My Goddess." the mercenary commander said after a moment. "You cut your hair."

Soren turned slightly red and looked at his feet. "Yes..."

"What the—You—Haha!"

The mage looked up in confusion as Ike laughed. "What?"

Ike hugged Soren and laughed again. "You idiot," he said fondly. "You small, wonderful idiot."

That seemed to say it all.

When Ike stepped back, he leaned down and whispered; "If you break her heart, I'll kill you."

"I wouldn't expect anything less," Soren quietly replied.

Ike straightened. Mia chuckled. "I hope you aren't considering cheating on Zelgius, boss." she said teasingly.

"Not on your life!" the mercenary commander said indignantly.

"Speaking of him," Elincia said, startling them. "I—I was hoping I could ask, Ike—why was Zelgius wearing the Black Knight's armor yesterday?"

Ike paused for just a moment. And when he answered, his voice betrayed none of the remorse he felt for lying to her, for repeating the same lie he and his husband had been telling people all day; "When he came to rescue me, he found the Black Knight in Dark Link's castle, working for him. They fought, and Zelgius won; and he took the armor when the armor he had been wearing was damaged. I honestly don't care what armor he wears, so long as it keeps him safe."

"Oh...alright, then."

Ike didn't like lying, but it was better than telling everyone the painful truth.

"...I still think you're being ridiculous," Shinon was saying, later, after most of the other mercenaries had wandered off, leaving the three marksmen to themselves. "Just because I like her _doesn't_ mean I'm in _love_ with her."

"I never said you were!" Rolf replied, annoyed. "I just said that I thought you were looking at her different than everybody else!"

"That's like saying the same thing!"

"Guys, I...can you please stop arguing?" Deirdre asked gently. "I love you both. It's_...painful_ to watch you fight."

Rolf thought, _Both? _and laughed slightly. "...Okay."

Shinon sighed. "Alright, fine."

She smiled. "Thank you."

"But, you know...You're going to have to tell us sometime," Rolf added after a minute.

Deirdre frowned. "Tell you what?"

"Whether you like him. It might create some problems if you don't, but lead him on for awhile." The boy ignored the glare his mentor shot at him.

She closed her eyes for a moment, then sighed. "...Um...Could I ask you something, Shinon?"

"What?"

"Just tell me...why you_...'like'_ me. Maybe that'll...help me understand."

Shinon paused. "Well...I suppose what happened in the caves has something to do with it." he said quietly. "You didn't spill your guts the first time I screamed. You didn't abandon me, even when everything seemed hopeless. That takes strength, and bravery. Bravery I never had. Strength I could never muster. That's... what I love about you, Deirdre. Your strength... It's beautiful."

Deirdre paused for a long, lengthy moment. "I..." she said softly. "I..."

The two boys tensed slightly. She opened her sapphire eyes again, and tears were coming to them. "I think I'm in love with you, Shinon."

"...Never thought I'd hear those words said to me," he muttered.

"Then I'm glad I got to say them to you," she replied.

He got up and moved over to her, kneeling down to wipe the tears from her eyes. "Deirdre...No crying." he said firmly. "I told you that before."

"Right," she agreed. "No crying."

The tears didn't stop as she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him on the mouth. He pulled her closer and kissed back.

Someone else sighed at the same time as Rolf. The boy quickly got up and shoved Gatrie away from the pair, who hadn't noticed his presence yet.

"Hey!" the blond knight grumbled. "I was watching!"

"Oh, you can let them have some privacy every once in a while." Rolf scolded. "Just because _you_ don't care about privacy doesn't mean that they don't either."

"Hmmph."

"You think _you're_ in a bad mood; I loved her too! I pretty much just got rejected!" Rolf laughed. "Though, maybe it was for the best. I don't even know if that was really love, or just...admiration."

_ Evening_

The sun was already setting, yet the sounds of celebration could still be heard on the streets—and seen from the roofs.

Jak sat up on the roof of the east wing of Mainal Cathedral, watching quietly the brightly lit streets and the people hanging about in them. Many of them were drunk from the earlier revelry; some were only just getting started. Somewhere, someone was playing music; a peaceful melody, led by a flute. Squinting slightly, he made out the half-dragon twins, playing and dancing in the square. They'd gotten quite a crowd; Mark's flute was beautifully played, and Lucina's dance was slightly childlike yet somehow alluring. They finished a song and the crowd cheered; some tossed coins to the young pair.

If Jak turned around, and looked down at the gardens of the cathedral, he knew he would see the Apostle's small, personal party, thrown especially for the leaders and heroes of the war that was coming to be known as the War of Shadows. He knew that everyone and anyone well enough to make it would likely be there, enjoying themselves among friends.

He'd promised Levail he would be good, and he had been. He'd promised to tell the others who he was, and he had.

But he still felt awkward around them, after avoiding them for so long; the only person he felt comfortable with was Levail, and he was likely still asleep, in the bed by the window just below him.

_No,_ Jak thought. _I won't join them...yet. But next year, perhaps...no...next year, I'll be there for _sure._ With Levail at my side._

Another was looking out at the streets in much the same fashion; except that he sat on the roof of the west wing instead, further from the general celebration and noise and light. He was happy to be alone for awhile, with nothing but his thoughts.

"Naesala?"  
_So much for being alone,_ he thought ruefully, glancing over his shoulder to meet the trueblade's eyes. "Hello, Lucia." he replied.

She climbed up the rest of the way and walked over to stand beside him. "I thought you might be up here." she said. "Are you avoiding Tibarn again?"

"Well, no..." He looked back out at the streets, and the horizon beyond them, where the light of the sun could still be faintly seen. "But he and Reyson are both there, and I'm sure they're fine not seeing me...Despite their words, it _will_ take awhile for them to forgive me for everything."

"Leanne misses you." Lucia sat down beside him. "She looked all over but couldn't find you. I guess she didn't think of coming up here."

"She probably thought I wouldn't be on a roof, since I'm not supposed to fly."

"That ladder you left _was _handy."

"I figured as much."

They sat in silence for several long minutes. "Well," Naesala finally said, "what brings you up here? You couldn'tve just been looking for me for Leanne."

"Who says I couldn't have?" She smiled faintly. "But, well...no, I just...wanted to talk to you."

"Ah. Well, here I am. What did you want to talk about?"

"...Hah. I don't know."

"You forgot?"

"No; I just never had anything _to _talk about."

"What was the point, then?"

"I suppose I just... wanted to see you."

"We established that already; but _why _did you want to see me?"

"I don't know!" Lucia sighed, looking up at the sky; a few stars were already becoming visible. "Isn't wanting to see you enough?"

He laughed. "Yeah, I'd say it is. Sorry for teasing you."

"It's okay..." Her mouth twitched into a smile. "To be honest, I was sure that I _did_ have something to say, but I've forgotten it entirely."

"Maybe if I try to guess, you'll remember?" Naesala suggested.

"That might work. Go ahead."

"You were looking for me for Leanne?"

"No."

"You wanted to invite me down to the party?"

"...Nope, though you can come if you want."

"Hmm...You wanted to have a drinking contest? Reyson sent you to kill me?"

"No, and," she laughed, "most certainly not!"

"...You wanted to confess?"

"Confess what?"

"...That you love me?"

She was still for a long time. That in itself was enough of an answer. "It would never work," he said softly. "You're beorc, and I'm a laguz. A laguz _king_. Kings are expected to have heirs that can live up to them, not Branded heirs that are despised by their subjects..."

"I know." she said softly. "I wish it wasn't so..."

Naesala felt her fingers touch his, and after a moment he gripped her hand. "Well, in all honesty...Lucia..." he said slowly. "I do find you...attractive."

"Thank you." She looked down from the stars to meet his eyes; she could see them reflected in his dark blue orbs. "I...find you..._attractive..._as well."

"Even with this?" He gestured at the eyepatch that covered his blind, scarred left eye.

"Even with." she confirmed.

There was another long moment of silence, and stillness. Then Lucia finally leaned forward, half-closing her eyes, mouth slightly parted.

Naesala only thought for a second before he leaned in, closed his eyes and kissed her.

She tasted _good._

When they parted, the Raven had a sad smile on his face. "We...can't be together." he murmured. "Kilvas would be..."

"I know," she said again. "Naesala..."

"...you...really are beautiful." he said softly.

"And...you...really are handsome." she replied. "Truly..."

After a few seconds of consideration, he muttered "Oh, what the hell" and leaned forward to kiss her again. This time, she kissed back. Her left arm slid over his shoulder, and he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her up against him, holding the kiss all the time. Her right arm came around his neck, cradling the back of his head to push his face closer to hers.

_Gods, this feels so good,_ Lucia thought. _How...how could any love like this be called a crime...?_

_ You're being an idiot,_ Naesala told himself. _She's beorc. If you're with her, you'll lose all your powers...your kingdom...everything...!_

They stopped kissing for a brief moment, meeting each other's eyes again. He couldn't resist those eyes. _Ashera, forgive me,_ he thought as he moved to touch her lips with his again. _Even if this might be a crime in your eyes, I..._

_ I will not surrender her._

_ Night_

Sephiran had been staying by the Apostle's side all day, per her request. Despite having won the war, there was still quite a lot for her to do. One of the first things was to pay the soldiers, and she had spent hours earlier in the day going through paperwork and sorting out sums. She was sure she would've died of overwork if he and Will hadn't been there to help—and now, with everything seemingly sorted out for the moment and her problems waiting for morning, she had decided to sleep through the night. In years before, she had made sure to be awake for the new year; but not this time.

The reinstated prime minister was now in the gardens, around the twenty-second mark, watching the others as they enjoyed themselves. Some of the people there he recognized, such as the Greil Mercenaries or Queen Elincia of Crimea—others, he did not, such as the blue-haired man he faintly guessed to be Prince Marth, who was talking to the queen.

He finally picked out the one person he wanted to see, however, and gestured him over. The man noticed and quietly left the group, walking into the shadows.

"Zelgius," Sephiran said softly.

"Lord Sephiran," Zelgius replied.

The prime minister smiled faintly. "It's been a long time, my friend."

"Indeed it has, since we last spoke in peacetime."

"Did you find my warp powder useful?"

The mercenary nodded. "Yes, my lord. You gave me exactly enough, and I thank you for it."

"No thanks are necessary. I had the feeling you might need some and I was glad to help."

The two men stood in silence for a few minutes, looking at the others. "How fares Commander Ike?" Sephiran eventually asked.

"He is well." Zelgius' eyes seemed to brighten at just the mention of his husband's name. "Already almost recovered from the battle yesterday. We plan to leave for Crimea in a week."

"So soon?"

"Yes; Queen Elincia will leave at much the same time, and we hope to help her in rebuilding the country."

"Still, a pity you cannot stay for longer. I would like to have a talk sometime, see how you've been doing these past three years."

"It is not as if we cannot. There shall be plenty of time this week for that, I'm sure."

Another silence. They had been so close once, but the factor of time had widened the gap between them, and neither really knew what to say.

"It's good to see you, Zelgius." Sephiran finally said. "And I hope we can stay in touch in the future."

The mercenary nodded, and smiled faintly—one of the only times Sephiran had ever seen him do so. "I will do my best."

"Sephiran!"

The two men turned at the sound of Sanaki's voice. "Apostle," Zelgius said politely.

She walked up to them and nodded to the mercenary. "General Zelgius."

"My lady, I thought you intended to rest." Sephiran reminded her.

"Well, I did, but...I've changed my mind." She smiled. "I didn't want to make this the first year I would miss out on New Year's! That would sort of dampen the prospect of all we have to do this coming year, no?"

"Indeed, my lady." Sephiran agreed with a small smile. "Come! Shall we join the others?"

"Yes, let us." she said, offering him her arm. He took it gently. "Come along, General Zelgius. I would like to speak to Ike."

"As you wish, Apostle."

"Please, no need to be so formal. 'Empress' will do."

"Of course."

Later that night, just after the twenty-third mark, William Merric found a dark-haired seraph knight sleeping against the wall, sword lying on the ground beside her, the hilt still loosely hanging in her hand. The general celebration had slowed as it got later, and most of the people in Mainal Cathedral had wandered off. This woman must've fallen asleep before that.

He shook her shoulder gently and she awoke. "Uunh...Oh, damn!" She hurriedly straightened, blinking the sleep out of her eyes. "Dammit, I must stop falling asleep...oh...where is...?"

"Empress Sanaki went to the central cathedral an hour ago," Will informed her quietly. "It's just after twenty-third mark now."

She turned to regard him. "...Oh, you're Lord Sephiran's new general, the Altean...I apologize, but I seem to have forgotten your name."

"William Merric." he replied automatically. "May I ask yours?"

"Tanith. Captain of the Holy Guard."

"...I would think you to be their general now, since Lady Sigrun died?"

"...You certainly are well-informed."

"I try to be." He paused. "I...apologize if I have offended you. I know she was your friend."

"It's alright...the dead are past, and no apologies will bring them back." Tanith drew a deep breath, and tried to look alert, but still appeared hopelessly sleepy, swaying slightly on her feet.

"You should get some rest," he offered. "It is unlikely anything will happen tonight, with the Greil Mercenaries and so many others there. But I will watch over the Apostle, in case anything happens."

"It is...kind of you to offer, but guarding her is my duty."

"You cannot help her if you are too tired to stand upright." Will put a hand on her arm, steadying her. "Come on. I'll escort you to your room."

She protested a bit more, but finally conceded. It was probably good that she did, because not long after they started back to her room, she fell asleep on her feet. Will realized then that he didn't know where her room was, and there didn't seem to be anyone around to ask—so, after a little consideration, he took her to his room and set her gently on the bed. He carefully unstrapped her armor and set it aside, so her shoulders wouldn't get stiff; then he took the sword out of her hand and set it against the wall as well.

Will turned to go, then glanced back at Tanith once, curiously. He recalled the things he had heard of her; of her strictness, and how others feared her. He remembered even hearing her referred to as the 'Great Demon' by a few of her former pupils.

Surely they couldn't have meant _this_ beautiful woman, sleeping so serenely under the light of the full moon?

Ike and Zelgius had lost track of the time long ago. They figured it had to be long past midnight by now, as the beginning light of the rising sun could just be seen coming up over the horizon.

They were sitting on the roof of Mainal Cathedral, hands clasped, looking out to the east and waiting for the sun to rise. The stars, barely visible in the light of the full moon, were only just beginning to fade away into the pre-dawn sky.

Most of everybody else had already gone to their homes and their beds, to get some much-needed sleep before the next day began. Neither of the two blue-haired mercenaries were tired, though.

"Will you do anything different this year?" Zelgius asked softly.

Ike shrugged; just a tiny movement of his shoulders. "I really don't know." he replied. "There were good things that happened this year...but there were a lot of bad things, too. Hmm..." He thought about it. "Well, if a rebellion against Elincia rises up again, I will do the same thing and rescue Lucia from her execution." he commented. "And if an evil shadow rises up to try and kill me and my friends, I'll be sure to fight and destroy him."

Zelgius smiled faintly. "Of course, love; I wouldn't dream of thinking you would cease to do those kind of things."

"...But, well..." Ike continued, slightly hesitant. "...Elincia has offered to make me a Crimean noble again."

Zelgius raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yes. She says almost all of them were killed by Dark Link; the only one left is Bastian now. She's engaged to Geoffrey, of course, and she's considering making Lucia the duchess of Felirae, since Ludveck had no descendants...and, well...she offered to give me lordship of Canteus."

"...Will you accept?"

"I don't know, Zelgius..." Ike sighed. "If I do accept, we won't have the old nobles around to criticize us anymore, and hopefully the new ones she finds won't be as bad...but...I don't know if I want to go back to noble life." He looked up at the moon above thoughtfully. "I _want_ to help Elincia, if I can, and maybe being a noble is the easiest way...but I don't know if I could stand to be one again. I don't think I could sacrifice my freedom for that again..."

Zelgius wrapped an arm around Ike's shoulders, pulling him closer. "You have to choose what you think is best, love." he said. "For yourself, and for those you care about."

"I know." he replied, lowering his head again, staring at the shingles under his feet. "That's why this decision is so hard..."

His husband leaned in slightly and kissed Ike gently on the cheek. "I know you'll make the right choice." he said comfortingly.

Ike smiled. "Thanks..."

"After all," Zelgius added, "you seem to have made a good choice with the Triforce wish."

Ike looked down at the back of his right hand. There was no mark anymore, but he could almost see it there still—as if the ghost of it was lingering about him yet. He closed his eyes, hearing his own voice echo in his head, echo the words he had spoken to the Triforce's spirit, even as his hand had seemed to be burning from touching it;

_"Bring all that of Hyrule home, so that Tellius will have peace."_

"Was that really the right choice?" he asked softly. "I could have wished for so much. I could've wished for those who died to come back; I could've wished to change the people's hearts and minds, destroyed the prejudice that has lingered amongst us for so long..." He turned to Zelgius, his deep blue eyes slightly sad. "Was that...really the right choice?"

Zelgius gently stroked the side of Ike's face, and his emerald eyes were calm and certain. "You cannot change a heart, even with the power of gods." he said softly. "And...wondering over it is pointless, anyway. There might have been many things you could have done, yet only a few that would have brought us peace...and after you have made the choice, there is no point in thinking of 'what ifs' over what could have been done differently." He leaned in and kissed Ike, briefly, his lips just brushing over the other's. "So do not fret over it, love. You killed Dark Link, and gave us hope for a future. We have only now to follow the path that you have given us. Nothing else matters."

Ike wrapped his arms around Zelgius, lifting himself slightly to slide over into his lap. Zelgius helped pull him up, and held him closely, looking deeply into his eyes. "Thank you." Ike said quietly. "My love. My dear, wonderful Zelgius. Whatever would I do without you?"

They kissed again, longer, holding it for a moment that could have lasted for eternity in their minds.

The sun finally peeked over the horizon, washing the deep blue sky with pink and gold. The couple regretfully broke from their kiss, and turned to face the sunrise of the new year.

"Happy New Year's, love." Zelgius murmured.

"A happy new year it is indeed, my love." Ike replied. "And may we live on to see many more happy years to come!"

* * *

_**A/N:**_

_So many pairings~_

_Here's a brief summary of all of the (new) (or half new) (whatever) ones;_

_**Soren x Elena;** …...Okay, yes, I'm a Soren/Ilyana fan, but these two just seemed to _work _together so well...I couldn't help it...they're so cute! (And I don't know where the hair cutting thing came from, but Soren would be cute with short hair~)_

_**Jak x Levail;** I sorta just realized this now, but...I have, what, two yaoi pairings in this fic, I think? There's Ike/Zelgius, and Jak/Levail. …...Suppose Levail really did follow in his hero's footsteps^^ (Jak/Levail actually came to me months ago when I was writing Chapter 10, where 'Kaj' is introduced...never got around to writing the pair in until recently ^^;)_

_**Shinon x Deirdre;** Good lord, but this pairing has been in my head for a long time...almost from the beginning, in fact, when I first wrote Deirdre in Chapter 1. I don't know why, but, well...here they are~ (At least I had a _little _backstory for those two...all that stuff in Chapters 8 and 9...it wasn't quite as spontaneous as Jak/Levail or Soren/Elena...Was it?)_

_**Elwyn x Kester;** …...To be honest, for the longest time I was debating whether to make it Elwyn/Alyxaidra ^^; I eventually decided that that was just _too _weird and went with the 'old friends turned lovers' approach, or whatever._

_**Luna x Dustin;** For a while, I was actually considering putting Luna with Jak. But after Chapter 10, Jak was always with Levail, and somehow Luna switched over to Dustin. Dunno how..._

_**Stefan x Elice Caeda;** Yet again, another one of those weird pairings that came to mind and stuck. I've been planning for this one ever since Stefan first found her in the desert, back in Chapter 12~ (Suppose I'll have to write some kind of 'lost stories' type thing to explain how they got together^^;)_

_**Roy x Sharon;** I had a little backstory to this! They were flirting in Chapter 1! This pairing was intentional, I swears! (Okay, yes, I suck...this was totally random, and Roy was supposed to end up with...Marcia! *shot*) (Alright, not really^^;)_

_**Kieran x Marcia;** …...Okay, I'll tell you the truth; The real reason I killed Oscar off was so I could put an end to the love triangle and have them get married without just dumping the other boy. I'M SO SORRY, OSCAR! *sob* *facedesk*_

_**Tiki x Chris(My Unit);** I think this one originally came to mind when I read that you could pair Tiki with My Unit in FE: Awakening. (Mark is named after My Unit's kid, in fact...at least, what it used to be translated as...they changed the FE Wiki page^^;) I've always liked the FE12 default My Unit...don't know why...ah, yes I do, he's hawt~ :D_

_**Ranulf x ?;** Gawd, I debated for so long who I would pair him with...eventually I decided to leave it undecided^^; The reader decides for themselves! Lethe, Lyre, or Ducessa? Or none of them? Who knows?_

_**Naesala x Lucia;** I have no idea what I was thinking with this one. *facedesk* I'M SORRY, LEANNE, BUT NAESALA WAS TELLING ME TO PAIR HIM WITH LUCIA AND I HAD TO WRITE IT IN! I'M SORRYYYYYY *sob* (Gawd, I must be some kind of crack pairing queen. Or at least a princess. Or something. *facedesk again*)_

…_...And yes, I _was _insinuating Tanith x Will near the end there. Spontaneous on-the-spot pairing~ (Though I suppose this means that, beside the manaketes or half-manaketes, Marth's the only Altean that doesn't have a pair...eheh...)_

_Anyway, we're almost done! I don't know whether I should be happy or sad..._

_ ~Darkie Ducessa_


	25. XXIV

**~Chapter Twenty-Four**

_January 6__th__, 649._

"Well, I guess this is goodbye." Marth said, a faint smile on his face.

"Are you going back to Daein?" Ike asked.

"Yes. I received a message from Lady Almedha that Pelleas was recovering. I hope to assist him in rebuilding Daein."

"Hopefully this will be the last time," Sothe muttered.

"No," Ike told him. "Don't say 'hopefully'. Make it the last time. If anyone can do it, you two can."

"Well, thanks for the vote of confidence."

"Sothe!"

The green-haired rogue turned at the sound of Stefan's voice. "Oh, hey Stefan." he said.

"I just wanted to wish you luck." the trueblade said. "And to return a few things." He offered Sothe a silver dagger and a steel knife. "They're yours. I didn't think you needed them before."

The rogue took them and slipped them into his pockets. "Thanks."

"Queen Nailah told me to tell you that she'd be coming along shortly, too," Stefan added. "After Volug's recovered, they're going to cross the desert back to Hatari."

"Will they come back?" Marth asked.

Stefan nodded. "Oh, yeah, probably. She said she's hoping to migrate her people across the desert."

"So we're going to have a whole country of wolves moving into Daein?" Sothe laughed slightly. "That'll be a sight."

"Hey, don't complain. Daein kinda needs the population increase, if you know what I mean."

"What about you, Stefan?" Ike interceded. "Are you going back to Graan?"

The trueblade nodded. "Yeah, probably. Me and Li-cae were thinking of starting a settlement somewhere near the river...she'd like to live somewhere not quite so dusty, she says. We're going to ask the Apostle if she'd cede us some land up there."

"Well, I wish you luck."

"Thanks."

Marth and Sothe walked down the bridge out of the city. Marth paused at the end and turned back to the mercenary commander. "Thank you, Ike." he called. "I won't ever forget you."

_January 7__th__, 649._

"Hey, Ike!" Ranulf said cheerfully. "Did you come to see us off?"

"You're leaving, then?"

"Yeah. Most of the army left with Skrimir already; me and the others are gonna have to run hard to catch up to them, so I guess we'd better get started pretty soon."

"Ah, we aren't that far behind." Ducessa said. "We're leaving ahead of schedule as it is!"

"Well, we have to!" Ranulf said, turning back to her. "We'll lose too much time if we go at the pace we planned before, with your leg slowing you down."

"My leg is fine!" she muttered. "You're all making a big deal out of nothing."

"Well, then I suppose leaving early means we'll get to take it easy!" Alyxaidra said cheerfully. "More time for baths!"

"Mo-om!" Ranulf complained. "I told you already; no baths!"

"I'll get you in that tub eventually," his mother grumbled.

Ike laughed. "Well, with the beorc that are going along with you, having an early start for them couldn't hurt either."

"Yeah." Ducessa agreed. "At least Kester and Dustin have horses, so the twins won't have to walk the whole way."

"Darkiiiiiiie!"

The Cat spun to meet the blue-haired girl as she charged into her and hugged her. "I'm going to miss you!" Elena cried.

Ducessa hugged the girl back and laughed. "I'll miss you too, Elena. Be sure to visit sometimes, okay?"

"I will! I promise!" she said.

The Cat stepped back, wiping a tear gently from Elena's face. "No crying, now." she said sternly. "This isn't the end of the world, and we'll see each other again."

The young girl nodded. "Okay." She stepped back to Ike's side; he put an arm around her and smiled.

"Come on, guys!" Elwyn shouted from her place on Kester's horse, sitting in front of him. "Let's go!"

"Coming!" Ranulf turned back to the two mercenaries. "Goodbye, Ike! I'll be sure to visit you!"

"Bye!" Ike called.

"Goodbye!" Elena shouted after them, waving as they jogged away.

_January 8__th__, 649._

"How's all the paperwork going?" Ike asked teasingly.

Apostle Sanaki groaned, tossing a sheaf of papers over her shoulder. "Don't even make _jokes_ about that!" she complained. "Sigrun must've been doing most of it for me before, but now there's so much of it...it's going to take me _years_ to sort out all of this!"

"Well, could you at least be sure to pay the Greil Mercenaries first?" he asked, half-jokingly. "We'd sort of like to be going home soon."

"That's already been taken care of," Sephiran interceded. "In fact, we have part of the payment here already. Though it's sort of a return..."

At a nod from Sanaki, Will went and picked up an oblong bundle that was leaning against the wall, offering it to Ike. "This is rightfully yours, I think," he said quietly.

Ike took it and pulled the covering off; then he gasped slightly when he saw the golden blade. "Ragnell?"

"Tanith and I returned to the battlefield a few days ago," Will explained. "We didn't find Dark Link's pouch, but we did find this. It must have fallen out when the pouch fell down the cliff."

"I know it's already yours, but consider it a down payment until I sort the rest of this out." Sanaki said.

"Thanks," Ike replied. "Hopefully I won't ever have need to use it, but if there is a time, I'll be happy to wield it again."

"You're leaving now, then?" Elice Caeda asked.

Jak slung his pack over his shoulder and nodded. "Sothe and Volug have already gone, so it's safe for us to leave too. We figure we'll settle down somewhere far away, where neither of them will ever go... Persis or Asmin, perhaps."

"Are you sure this is what you want to do?" she queried softly. "You're truly ready to spend the rest of your life in an obscure place, away from everybody else, just so nobody will know you're alive...?"

"It's really more about them thinking that Levail is dead, but yes." He smiled, walking towards the door. "I've never thought I had much purpose before, princess. But now...I've finally found it. My purpose... is to protect him. To _be_ with him. It's my choice, and I'm ready for it."

"...Very well." She walked forward and patted his shoulder. "As long as you're sure."

"I am sure." He opened the door.

The sentinel was waiting for him; hearing the door open, he quickly got to his feet. "Jak!"

"Levail," the rogue said happily, walking over to the sentinel and pulling his head down to kiss him. "Ready to go?"

Levail nodded, a serene smile on his face. "All set."

"Great!" Jak reached to take Levail's hand and turned back to Elice Caeda. "Good luck, princess. May we meet again!"

"Best of luck to you, my friend." she replied with a smile. "And may you both find happiness in your new lives."

The pair walked off together, talking about whether it would be nicer to have a house near a beach or a lake. Elice Caeda smiled, glad in knowing that the Ogma boy had finally found happiness.

_January 9__th__, 649._

"Are you going back to Gallia first?" Ike asked.

"We'll stop by there, then wing straight on to Serenes." Tibarn replied.

"Serenes? Why?"

"Empress Sanaki has kept her promise." Reyson said, genuinely cheerful—one of the only times Ike had seen him that way. "Serenes will be formally ceded back to us. She said we may return immediately."

Ike smiled faintly. "That's good to hear."

"Sometimes birds change their feathers." Tibarn commented. "The hawks, the herons, even the ravens. We're thinking we'll all settle down together."

Naesala nodded. "All this time, we've sorted ourselves by our ways of thinking and seeing and living." he said. "If we can respect each other's opinions and we learn to compromise, we can learn to live together without strife."

"I don't think it will be that easy, but it still ought to be simpler than getting beorc and laguz to treat each other decently." Ike said cheerfully. "You guys'll have to be a good example."

"All the major issues look like they'll be handled soon." Tibarn said. "The only thing we can't agree on is hunting and eating meat."

"(The forest creatures are off-limits!)" Leanne insisted. "(Needless displays of violence as well. You know we won't budge on that!)"

"Tell me..." Tibarn said sarcastically. "Have you ever heard of a vegetarian hawk? Or a raptor that doesn't scream victoriously at the skies after a kill?"

"Well, actually, going vegetarian might be interesting..." Naesala said thoughtfully.

"It doesn't even matter for you!" the Hawk said in frustration. "You're not even coming with us!"

Ike frowned. "He isn't? Why not?"

"Because he's going to Crimea with his girlfriend!"

Naesala reddened slightly. "She is _not_ my girlfri—we're just friends!" he insisted quickly. "I just agreed to help her rebuild Crimea, since it could be considered partially my fault that it got occupied...!"

Reyson rolled his eyes. "So you say, but we've all seen the eyes you and the queen's advisor make at each other..."

Ike blinked. "Wait—Lucia? Naesala likes _Lucia?_"

_"__We're just friends!"_ the Raven insisted again, louder.

"(Oh, don't be so embarrassed!)" Leanne teased. "(And don't bother denying it, because I saw you making out last night on the roof again. You two are cute together!)"

That comment, of course, made him redden even further. Ike didn't even know _what_ Leanne had said, and he was very confused.

"Hey, jerkass!" a cheerful voice called.

"Oh, hey Elena." Tibarn said, turning to the small girl as she hurried to join them.

She smirked. "What? No insult today?"

"We really could just drop it with those," he suggested. "We're confusing your dad."

"If you insist," she grumbled.

Ike glanced back and forth between them. "So, wait—you _are_ friends!"

_"__No, I still hate—_" Their words were almost exactly in unison, except for the last one, which differed between a male and female pronoun. Then they grinned at each other.

Reyson did a facepalm. "Random acts of idiocy or rudeness will also not be tolerated!" he declared.

"What!? Geez, are you herons trying to ban _everything!?_"

Elena laughed. "Remind me never to visit you in Serenes."

"Oh, like you'll see me visiting you in Crimea!"

They laughed together. "I'll be coming by next month!" she declared.

"Yeah, well I'll be coming by your place first!" he replied. "In fact, I'll come by to pick you up every time you want to visit, so you don't have to walk. Every month, even! Count on that!"

"I will!"

"Um, I hate to break up this _fascinating_ conversation," Naesala interceded, "but we really have to be going."

"Right, right." Tibarn sighed. "See you, Elena!"

"Bye!" she said cheerfully.

"See you," Ike said, raising his hand to half-heartedly wave as the Bird laguz flew into the air, his mind confused on other matters.

Such as—were Tibarn and Elena _friends,_ or _not? _And what was with Naesala and Lucia, anyway?

"Well, Sir Zelgius, I suppose this is goodbye." Tiki said, smiling warmly.

"Are you three returning to Goldoa?" Zelgius asked.

Mark nodded. "We're going to see if we can repair Mother's Divinestone, before we go traveling."

"We're considering going to Hatari," Lucina added. "Queen Nailah's stories of the place were quite fascinating."

"Well, I wish you three the best of luck." Zelgius said.

"Thanks. You too." Tiki replied. "If we're ever in the neighborhood, we'll make sure to stop by."

The three manaketes turned and walked away, eventually becoming just specks on the distant road. Zelgius stood where he was for a long time, thinking.

He heard a sigh and turned to face Ike. "I just had the most confusing farewell talk with the Bird laguz," the mercenary commander said.

"Confusing how?" Zelgius asked.

"Oh..." Ike laughed. "I just can't tell if Tibarn and Elena are friends or not, because of how they keep insulting each other and enunciating how much they hate each other, grinning all the while and promising to visit each other. Oh, and did you know that Naesala and Lucia are together?"

Zelgius raised an eyebrow. "Naesala and _Lucia?_"

"That was exactly my reaction!" Ike laughed again. "Strange, isn't it? I didn't think they were really each other's type..."

"I suppose everyone changes, love."

"Indeed."

_January 10__th__, 649._

"You're going too, then?" Ike asked quietly.

Elincia nodded. "You'll probably catch up to us tomorrow anyway, so we might as well get going," she explained. "Crimea isn't going to rebuild itself, after all."

"It's going to take a while, but we'll get Crimea back to its former glory again." Lucia added.

Ike glanced over at her with a slightly apprehensive expression; she noticed and turned to him. "What?"

"...Naesala?" he asked.

She sighed. "Why does everybody keep asking me that?"

"Sorry."

"It's okay. We were a little surprised ourselves, to be honest..." Lucia smiled. "But, well... I suppose... we were the only people we had to talk to, back when I was captured by Hyrule...and then I was one of his only friends in the Apostle's army for a while...and we just..."

Ike held up a hand to stop her. "It's okay, Lucia. You don't...I know how hard it can be to explain something like love."

She laughed slightly. "I suppose you really _would_ know, better than anyone..."

"I'm still surprised you swore yourself into Elincia's service," Sharon said to Roy. "You were a prince! Now you're just a lowly knight."

"Hey, we're not that bad!" the former prince insisted. "You're one too, you know."

"But I wanted to be a princess," she griped.

He laughed. "You'll still be one, my princess." he said fondly, wrapping an arm around her waist.

Marcia smiled, though she was thinking of something else. "I wonder if I and Sharon's and Elincia's pegasi are still running wild in Crimea somewhere?" she said to herself.

"If they are, then I shall track them down for you!" Kieran declared. "Deserters shall not be tolerated in the Crimean Army if _I_ am to be their Knight Commander!"

The pink-haired pegasus knight laughed. "Oh, give it a break, Kieran." she said cheerfully.

"I will not!" he said grandly. "From now on, I will be doing everything in my power to make sure the Royal Knights are not neglected under my leadership! We will be the best knights on the continent!"

"Um, me and Elincia haven't actually gotten married yet..." Geoffrey said cautiously.

"That does not matter! With Marcia at my side, the Knights will be—" He paused. "You will be by my side, right? Or would you rather settle down and be a housewife after we marry?"

"In your dreams, sponge-brain!" she yelped. "I'm gonna be a Crimean Knight until the day I die!"

"If you insist, but women should always be in the back lines! _Behind_ the men!"

"Oh really!? We'll see who's behind when you're eating my pegasi's dust, clambake! I don't even need to fly to outrun you!" She kicked the side of her borrowed pegasus, sending it racing off.

"Hey! Get back here, woman!" he shouted, urging his horse into a run and chasing after her.

"Glad to see _they're_ back to normal," Sharon muttered.

Elincia laughed slightly. "Well, Ike...I suppose we'd better be going." She paused. "Are you sure you won't reconsider your decision...?"

He nodded. "I'm sorry, Elincia. I'd like to help you rebuild and all, and I will—but I'd rather do it as I am, without becoming a noble to do it."

"I understand. I won't press you." She swung up onto her borrowed pegasi and turned it around. "Goodbye, Ike. I'll see you soon."

"Bye."

He stood there for a very long moment, even after the Crimeans had all ridden away. "...It feels kind of sad, really." he murmured, as Zelgius came to join him. "So many goodbyes, all at once..."

"We will see them again." his husband reassured him, taking his hand. "Someday...when we are all at peace."

_January 11__th__, 649._

The Greil Mercenaries were getting ready to leave. They were the last non-Begnions to leave Sienne, and Mainal Cathedral felt strangely empty somehow. Ike watched his mercenaries as they prepared to leave Sienne for probably the last time.

Titania tied a pack onto the back of her stallion's saddle, talking to Rhys as she did so. He said something and she laughed, a bright smile on her face.

Mia slid her sword into its sheath, fastening the belt around her waist, and asked Gatrie(who wasn't really paying attention) to toss her her pack. He absentmindedly tossed her his lance instead, keeping the pack; she laughed and quickly made the switch.

Shinon helped Deirdre pick up arrows that had fallen from a quiver she'd dropped. Every time his hand touched hers, they both lingered for a little longer than necessary. Rolf said something to them that made Deirdre turn slightly red.

Elena had bought a small horse with a small share of the money the Apostle had given them—in fact, everybody had bought new supplies, and Titania and Mist had both bought horses themselves, to replace their old ones(Titania's borrowed horse had to go back to its owner, a member of the Crimean Royal Knights, and they'd decided to let the horses they'd set loose in Daein alone). It was dappled gray and very pretty. Elena was a little small for it, however, and had to get Soren to boost her into the saddle. She said something to him, and after a moment he let her pull him up on the saddle behind her.

Mist climbed up onto her new horse, readjusting the pack tied on behind her. Boyd passed a mend staff she'd dropped up to her; in return, she handed him a hand axe that had somehow gotten in her pack. She seemed to complain and he paused, then dashed off; a moment later he returned with a bag of carrots that he passed up to her. She smiled and thanked him, and added something else, which made him blush.

Ike watched all this and smiled.

_My dear friends,_ he thought. _I'm glad I know you. I'm glad I know all of you._

_I wouldn't be what I am today...if it weren't for you all. Thank you...so much. I pray that you will all be happy...in this life, and in future ones...I pray that you will all find peace._

The Greil Mercenaries walked down the road to Crimea, away from Sienne. The sun shone brightly overhead against a cloudless blue sky, and the snow already seemed half-melted around them. It would probably snow again soon, burying this false spring in white—and then that would finally melt entirely, and the spring would come again.

Ike paused for a moment to look back at the city—the city that had seemingly stood unchanged by the wars around it, the place where he'd first set out to save Crimea three years ago, and the place where he'd healed after saving all of Tellius. He had the feeling he wouldn't ever see it again.

He didn't really care. He just wanted to go back. To Crimea.

Zelgius paused, glancing back at his husband. "Ike?"

Ike turned back to him. "Well, my love." he said cheerfully. "Shall we be off?"

Zelgius smiled. "Yes. Let's go home."

* * *

_**A/N:**_

_Gah, I felt incredibly cliche writing this chapter...  
And I'm going to give away this weird little reference dealie I came up with as I wrote this...The story began with Ike in the rain. It ends(not counting the epilogue) with Zelgius in the sun. Coincidence? Yes. I'm an idiot, but for some reason, I like those weird little things...^^;  
I'll post the epilogue soon. c:_

_~DarkieDucessa_


	26. Epilogue

_My story's stats (according to OpenOffice);_

_246 pages_

_141,966 words_

_Took over a year to write it and definitely the longest story I've ever written._

_If you've gotten this far, congrats! Thanks for staying around to read this whole lengthy product of my weird, twisted mind~ :3  
_

_I know this is a pretty short and pathetically sappy epilogue, but, well...it's how I wanted it._

_So...This is it! The end! (Unless you beg me for a sequel :D Just kidding, just kidding.)_

_ ~DarkieDucessa_

* * *

**~Epilogue**

_ August 1st, 653._

The sunset was perfect; red and gold and violet light washed through the dark sky, reflecting off the ocean. The gentle brown-haired woman watched as the light crept further and further beyond the horizon, darkening the blue sky, a peaceful smile on her face. _And so, the anniversary of the start of the War of Shadows,_ she commented to herself, _passes once again with no trouble..._

She heard heavy footsteps, and turned away from the window just as she heard the door downstairs shut. "I'm home!" she heard her husband call.

"I'm upstairs," she called down, walking into the hall.

He was up there in a minute, wrapping her in a hug. "Welcome back," she said with a smile.

"Thanks," he replied. "How's the kid?"

"Sleeping," she replied. "He's such a quiet baby; I don't know whether I should be relieved or worried."

"Eh, don't worry about it." He kissed her lightly on the mouth. "I'm sure he's fine."

"Mmm. Did you go to the castle again?"

"Yeah."

"Wait, let me guess. First thing you did, you visited Oscar."

"Of course! He's so much fun!"

She smiled. "Sometimes you seem like you're practically his father," she said lightly.

"I was thinking more of 'adoptive uncle'." He laughed. "Besides, it's Marcia's fault for naming him that. I mean, how am I _not _supposed to like a three-year-old who's got my brother's name?"

"I'm sure Kieran wouldn't have minded naming him something else," she said cheerfully. "Remember that fuss he kicked up about how he didn't want to name his son after his 'archrival'?"

He laughed again. "How could I forget?"

"Oh! Did you give Sharon the sword?"

"Mhmm. She loved it. Little Thany did too, and Sharon had to put it on a shelf before she hurt herself."

"It still seems weird that Roy would name his daughters after his ex-girlfriends..."

"Well, he was always a kinda strange guy."

"True. Was there any other news?"

"Not really. All anyone can talk about up there is Queen Elincia getting pregnant." He scoffed slightly. "I mean, it's not _that_ big a deal."

"Well, the kingdom needs an heir, and she's been married for almost four years without having one." she reasoned. "So it makes sense."

"I guess..."

"Was there any _other_ news?"

"Eh. Lady Lucia had her kid, finally...it was a girl. That Raven lost his powers, of course... I could hear his complaining from the other side of the castle. Oh, right!" He reached in his pocket and pulled out a few letters. "I ran into Jill, and she gave me these."

"Who're they from?"

"Let's see...One from Rolf, one from Elena, and one from Sothe? Huh, he never writes..."

The woman frowned. "Still nothing from Ike or Zelgius?"

"No..." He opened the first one and skimmed over it. "Let's see..._Dear Boyd and Mist, hope this finds you well... Me and Shinon finally got hired, have work in Begnion...Deirdre and Samar are well, though she has a touch of the flu...saw Gatrie, said hello...he's still working in the Sienne city guard...everybody else is fine...Rhys and Mia send best wishes...Lots of love, Rolf."_

"Oh, I hope little Sam doesn't get sick too..." Mist said softly. "He's only two, after all."

"Yeah..." Boyd opened the next one. _"_This one's from Elena. _Dear Mist and Boyd, how are you doing...Soren and I are great...I'm pregnant!?_ I thought she was only fourteen or something!"

"Actually, she told me last year she was closer to twenty, but she looks younger because she's Branded." Mist commented. "Keep going."

"Um..._Me and Titania and everyone are all very excited, but Soren's freaking out...Visited Tibarn, he's great...all's well in Serenes, he said...Hope to visit you soon, Elena."_

"Well, that was nice of her to write." Mist said with a smile. "What's Sothe's letter?"

Boyd unfolded it. "Hmm..._Boyd, Mist. Lady Nailah thought I should let someone from the old Greil Mercenaries know about this, so since you were the only ones that Jill was passing by, I'm writing you a letter. Hah..._

_ "Word from Begnion...Elice Caeda and Stefan's settlement is doing very well...they haven't seen any trace of Ike or Zelgius, however. The dams in Talrega burned, though I still don't understand how that happened...Marth and Haar and Jill are working hard to fix them before too much permanent damage is dealt to the surrounding countryside..._

_ "The last of Hatari's wolves arrived today...everyone is excited, except for those who still have anti-laguz sentiments, but they're already dwindling in number thanks to King Marth and Lady Nailah. And Pelleas, of course—he's taken quite a liking to the wolves, and does his best to improve relations between laguz and beorc amongst both the citizenry and the nobles, even though when he abdicated to Marth four years ago he said he wanted nothing more of politics..._

_ "Some of the wolves that arrived today said that they remember a pair of beorc passing through Hatari two months ago... they were headed northwest, and disappeared into the desert after a few days rest... We think they might have been Ike and Zelgius, but the descriptions were vague and all over the place, so no one really knows..._

_ "Anyway, hope you're well. Sincerely, Sothe."_

"Hatari...?" Mist said slowly. "That's...why would they go there?"

Boyd shrugged. "Well, you know how Ike is. He doesn't like staying in one place for too long...and he's already traveled all of Tellius. I guess he wanted to see somewhere new for a change..."

Mist sighed. "...I hope he and Zelgius are happy, wherever they are."

At that moment, the infant in the other room started to cry. Mist hurried into the room to comfort him, picking him up and rocking him gently. Boyd followed her and looked over her shoulder at their son. The baby had luscious golden hair and bright blue eyes—the eyes were his mother's, but other than that, he didn't look much like either of them. Not that they really minded.

"He's a cute little guy, isn't he?" Boyd said fondly.

Mist smiled. "We really should get around to naming him."

"What?" Boyd frowned. "You mean we've had a son for three months and we _still_ haven't named him?"

"Well, that's your fault, dear." she replied, laughing. "You were supposed to come up with one, but you still haven't."

"Oh..." He laughed as well. "Well, I suppose that means I've lost the naming rights. You can name him!"

"Name?"

"Yeah. Anything you want!"

"Hmm..." She looked at the baby in her arms. He cooed and smiled.

"Yes...a name...heh..." Her lips parted slightly into a grin, baring her bright teeth. "I will name him..."

Boyd blinked. For a moment, he could've sworn his wife's eyes flashed red; but no, they were their normal beautiful blue...

"_Link._"

_**~The End~**_


	27. Prequels

_Hello! I'm here now to say that so far, for those of you who wanted one; sorry, but I have no sequels currently planned(I have some ideas for plots, but they're very vague)...The thing I do have, though, is prequels! I have three of them in the works; each one focuses on a different character that wields part of the Triforce - Ike, Marth, and Dark Link. However, I don't know which one to work on first, so I have the prologues of each story here. Please review or PM me and tell me which you'd most like to read first, and I'll get to work on that one~_

_First we have Courage, which is Ike's prequel. It basically sums up how the heck Ike and Zelgius got together, as well as how they met Elena. Mostly takes place in the later part of Path of Radiance.  
Second, we have Wisdom, which is about Marth's life before and during Dark Link's invasion of Akaneia. It also fleshes out most of my OCs a bit better. There're lots of characters from Blazing Sword and Sacred Stones in it, as well. If you don't understand the family relations...well, even I don't understand the family relations, they're very weird ^^;  
And third, we have Power, which is all about Dark Link and how he came to posess the Triforce of Power._

_Enjoy!_

_~DarkieDucessa_

* * *

**~Prologue/COURAGE**

_ November 23rd, 644_

The blue-haired boy that stood in the courtyard of Mainal Cathedral was unaffected by the pounding rain. He'd been standing there for what seemed like an hour, staring up at the sky; he was completely soaked through, and yet he still didn't feel like moving.

He'd finally done it. After the struggle to escape Crimea, getting to Begnion, and working for Apostle Sanaki against the illegal slave trade, and finding the Heron prince—she'd finally agreed to help Princess Elincia's cause. He'd been made a lord—well, that was the one part he wasn't happy about—and tomorrow, he and Elincia would set out with the troops Sanaki had provided.

Set out to fight Daein, and eventually reclaim Crimea. He couldn't have been happier.

And yet...he felt as though there was a shadow hanging over him. A shadow of someone he needed to kill...though why he thought of it now, he had no idea; he hadn't seen the person in a long time, certainly not any time recently that would've made him think of it again.

And then he realized. It was the rain. Rain, just like that that had fallen when his father died, and the boy had vowed to avenge him.

"No matter how far you run..." he said quietly, repeating the promise he'd made to himself that night, "...no matter how long it takes...I will find you, Black Knight, and I will avenge my father's death. I swear it on his name!"

Then, feeling a bit better, he turned and went inside. He'd catch a cold if he stayed out much longer; he had the feeling he was in for a scolding from his sister, but he didn't really care.

Standing in the shadows just a little ways from him, a raven-haired general in red armor sighed slightly. _Ike..._ he thought wearily. _I'd hoped you might change, but...it seems I'll never be able to tell you now._

_ Unless somehow, you might find it in your heart to forgive me..._

**~End of Prologue**

**~Prologue /WISDOM**

_ June 7th, in the Year 628 of Our Lady Naga_

The young red-haired man was antsy and nervous. He paced relentlessly, walking up and down the room, trying not to worry about the woman in the room next door.

His older brother, an elegant man with blue hair that was starting to gray and a stern face, sighed. "Eliwood, stop panicking. She's perfectly healthy; there shouldn't be any complications."

"But hasn't it been taking an awfully long time?" Eliwood fretted.

"My son took twice this long to be born. Just calm down. Your worrying won't help anything."

"Oh, but how can I not worry, Ephraim!?" the younger man said. "Your wife is a manakete! Mine's only human, and she's delicate—"

They were startled by the door swinging open, and a fairly young woman with red hair stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her and wiping sweat from her forehead.

Eliwood rushed to her. "Cordelia! How is she!? Is she alright!?"

"She's fine, my lord." the woman said, a faint smile on her face. "You have a son."

The young man sighed deeply and half-fainted. Ephraim caught him and leaned him against the wall. "There, see? I told you it'd be alright." he said smugly.

Eliwood took a few minutes to regain himself. "Can I see her?"

Cordelia nodded. "She wants to speak to you, too. Go on in."

The red-head didn't wait for another word, but opened the door and rushed inside.

His wife looked up and smiled at the sight of him. "Eliwood." she said weakly.

"Lucina!" He hurried to her side. "How do you feel?"

"I knew you'd be worrying overmuch," she said, slightly amused. "I'm fine."

"Where is—?"

Cordelia's older and pregnant sister, Tana, suddenly appeared. She was holding a small baby, wrapped up in a bundle. "Congratulations, Eliwood!" she said cheerfully. Being a queen herself meant she didn't have to be as formal as her younger sister.

Eliwood took his son with reverent awe, looking at the baby's face with wide eyes. Lucina laughed. "If only you could see your expression."

"He looks like you," he remarked, smiling at her.

She smiled back. "What shall we name him?"

"Hmm..." He looked from the baby to its mother a couple times. "He looks a bit like that ancestor of yours, too—Marth, was it?"

She gently took her son from him, looking at him thoughtfully. "...A little, yes." she said. "Shall we name him that? Marth?"

"I think we're on the third now, actually." Cordelia commented. "At least, that's what Innes says."

"Our dear brother does like keeping track of those kinds of things," Tana agreed.

"Marth Lowell III...King of Altea." Eliwood said contemplatively. "It has a nice ring to it."

"I suppose it's decided, then." Lucina said, looking down at her son again. He looked up at her with big blue eyes, and she smiled. "Hello, Marth. I'm Lucina Lowell, your mother. It's nice to meet you."

**~End of Prologue**

**~Prologue/POWER**

In the ruins of the Dark Tower, a godlike beast shrank back into the form of a man. Sweat stood out on his dark green brow as he breathed heavily, ignoring the multiple wounds of an unworthy blade all over his body.

He was victorious. The Hero of Time lay defeated, sword gone from his gasp, unable to even stand upright.

The Princess was huddled over the Hero's body, trying desperately to staunch the blood of his wounds. The Dark Lord didn't even bother to restrain her now—he didn't do anything but laugh, for his ultimate ambition had finally been realized, and there was no one left to stand in between him and his throne.

The Hero struggled to his feet, but then collapsed again. The Princess tried to help him up, but he couldn't stand. The Dark Lord laughed again, then sighed and boredly snapped his fingers. Red rays of energy formed around the Princess's wrists, and she was violently tugged away from the Hero. Without her to support him, he collapsed.

"You monster!" the Princess screamed at the Dark Lord in fury, struggling against the magical bonds that held her. "You horrible monster!"

"Eh, what else is new," he said, cruel amusement shining in his eyes. "Now be quiet, little girl, while I kill this precious Hero that you and your sages placed so much hope upon! Watch as your hope die—"

Before he could finish his sentence, a rainbow of light suddenly flooded over the Hero's body. The Dark Lord cursed as the Hero disappeared. "Damned Sages...they will pay for interfering with me!"

He had to go after the Hero, he knew...but then there was the Princess to worry about; he couldn't leave her behind under the watch of his incompetent minions. He needed someone tougher, someone intelligent...

Aha! There it was. A dark presence, lingering on the edge of life. The Dark Lord sent out a finger of his power, and touched the darkness; and he heard a huge shuddering breath as it came alive again.

"Come along," he said, slightly amused. "You will be in charge of guarding the princess while I'm gone. Try not to lose her, will you?"

There was a weak groan, a voice not unlike the Hero's and yet never the same. Then, out of the darkness of the ruined castle, a shadow stood. Inky blackness trailed off its form, before it finally settled firm in the shape of the Hero.

Almond-shaped eyes, glowing red, devoid of pupil or iris, appeared in the darkness. And the shadow of the Hero of Time stepped forward, alive once again.

The Princess gasped in horror.

"Dark Link...!"

** ~End of Prologue**


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